MetapHoresis is a start-up, microchemistry company formed with Protasis Corporation to commercialize the latest advance in separations technology for use by the fast-growing life science, drug discovery and diagnostics markets. A new technique, dynamic field gradient focusing (DFGF) promises to dramatically extend the capabilities of traditional chromatography and isoelectric focusing by combining them into a new, perfectly balanced ultra-high resolution technique. What will be the best technology for proteomics is not yet determined. For more than two decades, proteomicsâ workhorse technology has been two-dimensional gel electrophoresis--the accepted technique for looking at cellular protein constituents. In the late 80âs the introduction of mass spectroscopy made it possible to identify the proteinâs exact molecular structure. Even so, gels are notoriously difficult to analyze. The technique is also slow, often requiring tens of hours to complete a single gel. It is also difficult to automate. And, obviously, a 2D gel can hardly be expected to discriminate the 100,000 some odd proteins which are thought to be expressed by the human genome. MetapHoresis was created expressly to design and deliver revolutionary new technologies and techniques to the proteomics market. The plan is to introduce new electrofocusing technology (DFGF), which is fast, scalable and has a peak capacity that can be adjusted in real-time. Speed is gained by designing the device to operate at MEMS scale so fractionation is completed in a few seconds. Widely adjustable peak capacity is attained by using patented DFGF focusing technology to dynamically monitor and control the fractionation of each protein. Unlike 2D gel, MEMS-DFGF is : * Fast * Inherently parallel * Innately automatable * Readily coupled to NMR, MS, etc. DFGF can also adjust and optimize peak mass and concentration to a given detection system, so that trace proteins can be detected and analyzed in the presence of bulk prot
