Early Detection of Cancer By Affinity Mass Spectrometry

东弗吉尼亚医学院（EVMS）生物标志物发展实验室（早期检测研究网络或EDRN的成员）是一个综合的多学科计划，研究人员使用质谱技术挖掘蛋白质组中独特的癌症生物标志物和蛋白质表达指纹，可用于改善前列腺癌，乳腺癌和头颈癌的早期检测。自成立以来，作为EDRN的成员，EVMS一直致力于应用新型蛋白质组学工具来检查肿瘤和/或肿瘤环境的表型特征，以寻找用于癌症早期检测和风险评估的蛋白质生物标志物。在未来五年内，EVMS的调查团队将继续独立和合作地追求以下目标 与其他网络合作伙伴和行业科学家合作。总体目标将通过三个目标实现：1.确定蛋白质谱分析作为诊断测试的临床效用; 2.）发现用于癌症早期检测的蛋白质生物标志物;以及3.）分离和表征蛋白质生物标志物。在第一个目标中，我们将继续开发SELDI分析作为前列腺癌和头颈癌的诊断工具。我们还描述了我们的研究，以显着改善这一平台，通过改进的峰值拾取和数据分析方法，我们描述了一种新的蛋白质组学工具，ClinProt UltraFlex（MALDI-TOF/TOF）的生物标志物发现。在第二个目标中，我们将检查体液和组织中乳腺癌、前列腺癌和H & N癌的早期标志物。在第三个目标中，我们描述了我们的方法，以序列鉴定和表征的候选生物标志物的早期检测和风险评估。我们独特的团队 来自基础科学、数学科学和临床竞技场的研究人员提供了继续我们在生物标志物开发方面的工作所需的专业知识。

The Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) Biomarkers Developmental Laboratory (a member of the Early Detection Research Network or EDRN) is an integrated multidisciplinary program where investigators use mass spectrometry technology to mine the proteome for unique cancer biomarkers and protein expression fingerprints that can be used to improve the early detection of prostate, breast and head and neck cancers. As a member of the EDRN since its inception, EVMS has led significant efforts in the application of novel proteomic tools to examine the phenotypic traits of tumors and/or the tumor environment in search of protein biomarkers for the early detection and risk assessment of cancer. During the next five years, the EVMS team of investigators will continue to pursue the following aims independently and in collaboration with other network partners and industry-based scientists. The overall objectives will be met through three aims; 1.) determine the clinical utility of protein profiling as a diagnostic test; 2.) discover protein biomarkers for the early detection of cancer; and 3.) isolate and characterize protein biomarkers. In the first aim we will continue to develop SELDI profiling as a diagnostic tool for prostate and Head & Neck cancers. We also describe our studies to significantly improve this platform through improved peak picking and data analysis methods and we describe a novel proteomic tool, ClinProt UltraFlex (MALDI-TOF/TOF) for biomarker discovery. In the second aim we will examine body fluids and tissue for early markers of breast, prostate and H&N cancer. In the third aim we describe our approach to sequence identification and characterization of candidate biomarkers for early detection and risk assessment. Our unique team of investigators from basic sciences, mathematical sciences and the clinical arena supply the needed expertise to continue our work in biomarker development.