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(Sharecast News) - Proteome Sciences has completed its next milestone towards the launch of 'single cell proteomics' services, it announced on Wednesday, dubbed 'SysQuant SCP'.
The AIM-traded firm said it had installed a 'cellenONE' platform to allow the semi-automated preparation of up to 2,700 cells per week.
It expected that most commercial projects would require analysis of between 500 and 1,000 cells using 'TMTpro' multiplexing, meaning it would now be able to perform one or two such studies each week.
Working with such small samples was described by Proteome as "challenging", and beyond the means of many academic and industrial research groups.
The company said it believed its employees' experience as inventors and manufacturers of TMT and TMTpro reagents gave it "unique insights" into their use in such a "complex" setting.
Following initial experiments, the firm said it expected coverage of between 1,000 and 1,500 proteins per cell.
It said it was anticipating completion of the platform and process validation in the third quarter, and to then launch the dedicated multiplex SysQuant SCP services before the end of the year.
That would complement the expansion of its mass spectrometer platforms late last year, and would establish Proteome Sciences as "the premier provider" of single cell proteomics, the board said.
"It is clear that the demand for a standardised service is growing rapidly," said chief scientific officer Ian Pike.
"The use of TMTpro reagents is greatly enhancing coverage in studies of hundreds of individual cells and provides the throughput necessary for large studies needed in pharmaceutical research.
"By isolating and labelling each cell with TMTpro tags and then mixing to make a more concentrated sample on the cellenONE platform, we can explore the true diversity of functional biology in every disease, with the potential to identify new drug targets and diagnostic biomarkers."
Dr Pike said the system provided the level of throughput required for Proteome's initial plans to launch a SysQuant SCP service, and would be scalable to rapidly increase capacity amid a growing market opportunity.
"This is a major step in the process and we have further exciting developments for single cell proteomics planned for the future."
At 1051 BST, shares in Proteome Sciences were uo 12.59% at 4.17p.
Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.