Mass spectrometry-based tissue proteomics for cancer biomarker discovery

There is an urgent need for the development of technologies that allow the monitoring of protein expression and processing in tumor tissues resulting from development, physiology and disease state. To address the issue of cell heterogeneity in the tissue section, several microdissection techniques have been developed to provide a rapid and straightforward method for isolating selected subpopulations of cells for downstream molecular analysis. Development and demonstration of an effective discovery-based proteome platform, Gemini, are particularly highlighted for its capabilities of achieving ultrasensitive and comprehensive analysis of minute proteins extracted from targeted cells in tissue specimens. The greatest expectations for targeted proteomics research using enriched nonmalignant and malignant cells from high-quality fresh-frozen, formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded specimens reside in the identification of diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biological markers in the clinical setting, as well as the discovery and validation of new protein targets in the biopharmaceutical industry.