Featured Technology: Nano-particle technology
Drs. Lance Liotta and Emanuel Petricoin and their colleagues have been at the forefront of an idea in molecular medicine and proteomics which has appeared in the past few years. While abnormal proteins large and small are typically cleared from a person’s blood by natural cleaning mechanisms in the body, an enormous host of small, rare proteins are protected from this cleaning by hanging on to a large, ubiquitous protein called albumin. When blood is collected and these low molecular weight (LMW), low abundance proteins are separated from albumin and analyzed, they provide an ocean of information about processes taking place in the body. When correlated with normal and disease states, these proteins may serve as biomarkers for the early detection and monitoring of diseases ranging from cancer to heart disease to diabetes.
Separating these LMW proteins from the blood is not an easy process, and a swift separation mechanism is needed if these biomarkers are to be used for clinical benefit. Nano-particle technology developed at George Mason University will allow this easy separation, in far less time and for far less cost than current procedures.
The nano-particles are 20 to 30 nanometers in diameter and have molecular pores whose size can be adjusted by temperature and other mechanisms. A ‘bait’ for a particular biomarker or panel of biomarkers is placed in a hollow space inside the bead. Millions of the beads are placed in a blood sample, and the bead sieves LMW proteins based on the bead’s pore size and then keeps wanted LMW proteins inside the bead with the bait. The beads can then be easily separated from a blood sample through centrifugation, and the proteins emptied out for analysis.
The commercialization of these beads will be extremely important for biomarker diagnostics and the field of proteomics.
If you’re interested in commercial opportunities for this technology, contact Joe Janda, Life Sciences Licensing Associate, in George Mason University’s Office of Technology Transfer at 703.993.3879. Mr. Janda's e-mail address is jjanda@gmu.edu.