News Article

Agreement between SomaLogic and AmberGen enables use of photocleavable reagent for commercial applications of breakthrough proteomic technology
Date: Nov 29, 2011
Source: ( click here to go to the source)

Featured firm in this article: Ambergen Inc of Watertown, MA



AmberGen's innovative photocleavable biotin
enables current SOMAscan

platform
Boulder, CO and Watertown, MA,
November
29
, 2011
--
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SomaLogic, Inc. and AmberGen, Inc. announced today that they have entered into
a
licensing agreement
whereby AmberGen will provide its
proprietary
photocleavable biotin reagent
for the
commercial use
of
SomaLogic's
SOMAscan
TM
technology platform
.
The
biggest constraint
on
successful development of a high
throughput proteomic quantita
tion platform
is achiev
ing
sufficient sensitivity.
SomaLogic
's
innovative
SOMAmer (Slow
Off
rate Modified Aptamer)
protein
capture reagents and their multiplex SOMAscan
technology break through this limitation
.
AmberGen has
developed a range of
novel
mol
ecules and com
pounds with photocleavable link
ers,
including
a
5
prime
p
hotocleavable
biotin
,
a
light
activated biomolecule
that it has licensed to
SomaLogic
.
"AmberGen's
photocleavable biotin element
provides
an
efficient
way to detect and
measure the bou
nd proteins
as part of our SOMAscan

platform
"
said Nick Saccomano
, Ph.D., Chief
Technology
Officer at SomaLogic
.
Th
e SOMAscan

technology platform utilizes SOMAmers to accurately screen dozens of patient samples
simultaneously
, allowing quantification
of
many
specific
proteins in a multiplexed, high
throughput
manner.
SomaLogic has thus far validated SOMAmers to a broad array of over
1000
different protein
targets for use in biomarker discovery, diagnostics, and drug discovery and development.
"We loo
k forward to
exploring new
applications for our
photocleavable
technologies with SomaLogic, as
we continue to support
their existing
and emerging
SOMAmer reagents,
" stated Christopher Sears,
Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer
of
AmberGen
. "With both companies
' commitment to developing tools for
personalized medicine, there are ample opportunities for further