Researchers at the Wistar Institute have developed a novel method for detecting low-abundance proteins in human plasma and serum by fractionating the proteins in four dimensions before submitting them to a mass spectrometer.

Detecting proteins in the nanogram-per-milliliter concentration range and lower is important because biomarkers for diseases and conditions are most likely to be present in plasma and serum in that range, said David Speicher, the lead developer of the new method.