DENVER, June 6, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Protea Biosciences, a leading developer of new bioanalytical technology, announced today that it has commenced offering the industry's first bioanalytical services employing LAESI imaging mass spectrometry – a new technology that enables rapid and comprehensive identification of biomolecules in tissues and biofluids.
The company made the announcement at this week's Annual Meeting of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) held in Denver Colorado, and attended by over 6,000 scientists from around the world.
"We are pleased to make this important new bioanalytical technology available to the research community," stated Steve Turner, Protea's CEO. He added, "The culmination of years of research and development, LAESI allows the generation of mass spec data without the destruction of the biological sample, thereby allowing the mass spec data to be shown localized in the sample - in the context of its biology."
The first LAESI-MS services will provide 2- and 3- dimensional imaging of biomolecules found in human, animal, and plant biological samples. Custom bioinformatics tools have been developed to assist in the analysis of the very large datasets that are generated.
LAESI-MS, short for laser ablation electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, enables the massively parallel identification of biomolecules found in tissues and biofluids, including metabolites, lipids, peptides, and proteins. Extremely rapid (each "pixel" of analysis takes less than 2 seconds), sensitive and quantitative, LAESI-MS enables 2- and 3- dimensional mapping of biomolecules through and lateral imaging of the samples and depth profiling. Biomolecules can be identified and localized in cell structures, tissues and fluids. Little or no sample preparation is required.
LAESI technology was invented in the laboratory of Dr. Akos Vertes Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, and Founder and Co-Director of the W.M. Keck Institute for Proteomics Technology, at the Department of Chemistry, The George Washington University. LAESI has already been demonstrated to be a powerful research tool and many of its applications have been published in peer-reviewed journals.
Protea Biosciences, Inc. (www.proteabio.com) develops new bioanalytical technologies that enable the direct analysis of proteins, metabolites, and other biomolecules, and applies their technology to the development of new pharmaceuticals, products and services.