NEW YORK, May 9-Equipment manufacturer Thermo Finnigan and MDS Proteomics said today that they plan to work together to adapt mass spectrometry devices for the analysis of low-abundancy proteins.
The two companies will customize Thermo's Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry technology for use in identifying disease-specific proteins that may be present only in trace amounts.
MDS Proteomics will provide technical specifications, evalute and assess the equipment, and provide proteomics-specific expertise to guide instrument development. Thermo Finnigan will give MDS Proteomics exclusive beta-version access to the machines as they progress.
Thermo Finnigan will use this feedback in developing a commercial FTMS-based proteomics system that offers high dynamic range, ultra-high sensitivity and peptide sequencing capabilities in order to speed and improve detection of low-level proteins.
The company says that FTMS technology allows for a several thousand-fold boost in mass spectromic resolution and a 100-fold improvement in dynamic range detection of trace proteins.
Thermo Finnigan, a division of Thermo Electron, is based in San Jose, Calif.
MDS Proteomics is headquartered in Toronto.