Next Generation Proteomics

Since the term “proteome” first appeared in the scientific literature in 1995, interest in proteomics research and its use in applications like drug discovery, tumor characterization, and disease biomarker identification has exploded. With that growth has come a need for new approaches to catalog and study the proteome, as conventional techniques often fall short in accomplishing the specificity, sensitivity, and throughput required by ambitious emerging research efforts and applications.

Mass spectrometry and immunoassays like ELISA (enzyme-linked immunoassay) have traditionally been employed in proteomics research. While mass spec has long been the workhorse of protein biology, it requires specialized expertise and centralized equipment to complete lengthy analysis that can take weeks to months. Immunoassays have the benefit of being efficient and easily performed on the lab bench but lack multiplexing capabilities as they typically detect only a single molecular feature of a single protein.

Enter next-generation proteomics, a fast-growing group of technologies and approaches that circumvent these deficiencies and enable large-scale experiments with high sensitivity and the ability to capture the proteome’s dynamic range. These tools include novel mass spectrometry techniques, pre-mass spec high fidelity enrichment, spatial and single-cell proteomics, multiplex immunoassays, high plex affinity-based detection, and single molecule fingerprinting, each of which has its strengths, limitations, and ideal applications.

Novel mass spec comprises 4D proteomics, which incorporates ion mobility spectrometry as the “fourth dimension” of analysis to broaden coverage and boost acquisition speed, and limited proteolysis mass spec (LiP-MS), which incorporates protease digestion steps with data-independent acquisition protein quantification to build an unbiased list of proteome sites. Pre-mass spec high fidelity enrichment solutions, which use nanoparticles or depletion and fractionation to increase throughput of mass spec, are also available on the market today.

Other next-generation tools are well suited to fine-tuned study of the tumor microenvironment, like spatial proteomics, which uses antibody detection to locate cell types in tissue, and single-cell proteomics, which employs technologies like mass spec and mass cytometry at the single-cell rather than population level. These approaches are also often applied to drug discovery and development, as are affinity-based detection methods, which detect and measure several thousand proteins in one low-concentration sample with tagged antibodies.

Affinity-based techniques combine precision with high-speed turnaround, as do multiplex immunoassays, which use beads to simultaneously detect multiple proteins within small volumes at high sensitivity. Multiplex assays are well suited for clinical biomarker discovery, as is single molecule fingerprinting, a novel and developing approach that aims to identify the entire chemical character of individual protein molecules.

Primary objectives of this market analysis

• Quantitatively describe the NG proteomics business
• Project shipments of the major product classifications
• Project market size & growth for major market applications, disease areas and geographic segments
• Estimate revenues of the leading suppliers

Other objectives of this report

• Analyze economic factors driving the market
• Identify leading suppliers in key markets
• Explore technological factors impacting products
• Estimate related markets for analyzers, consumables and services

Sources of information for this report

• TDA internal database on analytical technologies
• Manufacturers earnings calls, press releases, investor presentations, annual filings
• Publications, NIH grants, literature review
• Conference proceedings
• Trade reports and featured articles
• Economic data (US Census Bureau, WEO, Pitchbook)

Novel Mass Spectrometry

• Higher coverage and resolution of proteins using ion mobility separation in addition to traditional QTOF leading to better sensitivity and reproducibility.

Single Cell & Spatial Profiling

• Study of proteins at the level of single cells and spatial detection of antibodies within cell types along with their location within the microenvironment.

N-Plex ELISA

• Digital immunoassays with higher sensitivity, high multiplexing capacity and low sample volume requirement than traditional immunoassays.

Affinity-based Detection

• Detection of proteins via oligonucleotides in a highly reproducible manner and multiplexing of several thousands in a single experiment.

Pre-Mass Spec Enrichment

• Turnkey LC/MS sample prep solutions that enable enrichment of native protein molecules in a highly multiplexed, high throughput and reproducible manner.

Single Molecule

• Collection of keyhole insights into the complete protein molecule to estimate the complete chemical composition.

The following applications/products is NOT considered as part of the NextGen Proteomics market

• Clinical diagnostics
• Transcriptomics, single cell & spatial genomics
• Cell isolation platforms such as FACS, opto-electropositioning
• Component providers such as antibody suppliers
• First gen proteomic technologies such as ELISA, Single plex immunoassays, Western blot, Immunohistochemistry, Liquid chromatography, and 2D/3D Mass spectrometry
• NMR for structural proteomics
• Services revenue from contract/lab services