This story originally ran on Feb. 2.
Strategic Diagnostics this week announced that Science Applications International Corp.-Frederick has chosen it to develop monoclonal antibodies as part of the National Cancer Institute's initiative to improve reagents for the proteomics community.
The contract, whose terms were not disclosed, is the third consecutive awarded to SDI for the initiative since the first one in the spring of 2008 [See PM 04/10/08].
The work by the NCI is part of its Clinical Proteomic Technologies for Cancer initiative to create better technologies and methods for the proteomics community. The Clinical Proteomic Reagents Resource Initiative, part of the CPTC, is aimed at creating higher-quality antibodies and reagents [See PM 11/29/07].
Under the initiative, SDI will develop antibodies against antigens identified by the NCI and produced by Argonne National Laboratory. The antibodies are initially screened and characterized by SDI, and then sent to NCI-Frederick for additional screening and characterization.
The antibodies are then characterized additionally by either the Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden, which runs the Human Protein Atlas, or Joshua LaBaer's group at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University.
The antibodies are then made available to researchers through the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank at the University of Iowa.
In a statement, Fran DiNuzzo, president and CEO of SDI, said, "As the study of proteins continues to increase in importance to the research community, and antibodies continue to be the most widely used tools for understanding the molecular dynamics underlying disease, we anticipate a continued demand for SDI products and services."
In the first round of the contract, SDI had to develop three antibodies for each of 42 antigens that were identified by the NCI. A spokeswoman for SDI declined to say how many antigens were identified by the institute for this current round.