Duke University's Proteomics and Metabolomics Core Facility, led by Arthur Moseley, a Waters COI partner, has developed an LC-MS assay for research into tumor associated antigens (TAA) based upon guidance from an expert panel at the National Cancer Institute. Duke's targeted proteomics research method, utilizing 2D-LC, quantifies tumor associated antigens or important proteins known to be involved in tumor activity that are targets for therapies.

Waters spoke with the Duke Scientists behind the method about the 2D-LC and ionKey/MS technology that enabled the development and also the impact this could have on healthcare.

Chapter 1: Determining Biological Significance in Targeted Proteomics
In this opening chapter, Arthur describes the goals of his laboratory, which is to provide a diverse array of analytical capabilities for supporting basic science research and a sufficient capacity to also support the clinical sciences within the School of Medicine. By combining multiple modes of chromatography, they can exploit different separation mechanisms to obtain the most thorough understanding of the samples as possible. Clear understanding of these analytical technologies along with high performance and a statistical understanding is crucial to successful and biologically relevant results.

Chapter 2: Enabling 2D HT Technology
In this chapter, Will describes the Waters separations technology used for high throughput 2 Dimensional LC (2DLC) using ionKey/MS and the Waters ACQUITY M-Class Systems. This 2D-LC method with nanoflow technology significantly improves the speed of throughput, the sensitivity and robustness as well as the reproducibility of their samples, even across different matrices.

Chapter 3: Quantification with Targeted MRM
In this chapter, Eric describes the work Duke's Proteomics and Metabolomics Core Facility has been doing to develop a 2D-LC and MRM methodology to priority rank a number of tumor-associated antigens or targets across a large number of different cancer cell types in order to define an expression profile or "Fingerprint" of these antigens

Chapter 4: Transfer from Discovery to Clinical Research
Duke's analytical capabilities and experiments are building blocks to support basic science research in our laboratories and across multiple laboratories. They provide the principal investigators with the tools and information that helps them to understand the basic biology of what they are studying, to be able to build upon the mechanistic discoveries in basic sciences and to look across patient cohorts and to have the discovery research ultimately be translated all the way to the patient's bedside.