Sciex and the National University of Singapore Collaborate on Cancer Biomarker Research

Sciex (Framingham, Massachusetts) and the Protein and Proteomics Center (PPC) under the Department of Biological Sciences of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Faculty of Sciences have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote joint research and development activities in oncology biomarker discovery and development. The collaboration will pave the way for accelerated cancer detection and screening.

The PPC is a multi-user facility focusing on advanced research in proteins with an emphasis on mass spectrometry. Areas of expertise include biomarker discovery, proteomics, quantitative proteomics, and structural mass spectrometry (Amide hydrogen/deuterium exchange MS and ion mobility MS).

Under the partnership, Sciex and PPC’s areas of cooperation will include facilitating workshops on qualitative and quantitative proteomics to educate the regional research community on alternative methods for proteomics. Sciex and PPC researchers will also collaborate to develop mass spectrometry approaches for protein and metabolite profiling of zebrafish serum. The zebrafish is widely used as a model organism for biomedical research because of the similarity of its genetic makeup with that of humans. In particular, various zebrafish cancer models have been developed to facilitate cancer research.

Subsequent approaches and technologies developed by researchers will be applied to discover biomarkers of cancer progression, study the mechanisms and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics of anti-cancer research, and uncover biomarkers for environmental monitoring.