The Lucid Proteomics System for top-down biomarker research.

Advances have been made in recent years for both "top-down" and "bottom-up" profiling approaches to biomarker discovery. Top-down protein profiling via SELDI-TOF mass spectrometry has been used by researchers in many fields of study to discover native protein biomarker candidates from a variety of sample types, but has been limited without a means for straightforward identification of these candidates. Bio-Rad has recently partnered with Bruker Daltonics to create the Lucid Proteomics System, a complete SELDI-based research workflow--system qualification, biomarker discovery, data analysis, and biomarker purification/identification--using Bruker's flex series of TOF and TOF/TOF mass spectrometers, which have long provided consistent performance and high value data for MALDI applications. This collaboration enables both top-down and bottom-up proteomics approaches on a single high performance MALDI-TOF MS platform for maximum coverage of the proteome--allowing greater flexibility with experimental design and accelerating biomarker research programmes.