Hydrophobic standards for electrophoresis

十二烷基硫酸钠聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳（SDS-PAGE）是世界各地研究和医学诊断实验室日常使用的蛋白质分析技术。这个过程将蛋白质分离成凝胶板上的点，几乎所有的应用都需要对蛋白质大小进行合理的估计。SDS-PAGE上的蛋白质大小是用由不同大小范围的标准蛋白质组成的“尺子”或“标记”来测量的。这些标准由许多商业供应商出售，并且每次运行SDS-PAGE实验时都会使用这些标准。因此，实验室不断购买标准。然而，目前的产品被认为不正确地读取完整膜蛋白的大小。这些分子代表了人类所有基因的20-30%，在过去十年中，FDA批准的药物靶标中有70%是这些分子，这使得它们对生物医学研究具有巨大的重要性。这个大小问题意味着涉及膜蛋白的SDS-PAGE实验容易出错，而且解释起来很复杂。我们的团队发明了一套全新的、完全独特的膜蛋白标准，已被证明可以显著提高SDS-PAGE测量膜蛋白大小的准确性。该产品有可能率先进入市场，在学术研究实验室、生物制药行业和医疗诊断领域都有持续的需求。本I2I提案中概述的研究描述了我们的发明成为膜蛋白研究人员必备产品所需的科学验证和技术步骤，以及其预期商业化的详细计划。

Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) is a protein analysis technique performed daily in research and medical diagnostic laboratories all over the world. This procedure separates proteins into spots on a gel plate, and nearly all of its uses require a reasonable estimate of protein size. Protein sizes on SDS-PAGE are measured with 'rulers' or 'markers' composed of standard proteins of various size ranges. These standards are sold by many commercial suppliers, and consumed each time an SDS-PAGE experiment is run. Laboratories therefore purchase standards on an ongoing basis. However, current products are known to incorrectly read-out the sizes of integral membrane proteins. These molecules represent 20-30% of all human genes, and 70% of drug targets approved by the FDA in the past decade, making them of huge importance to biomedical research. This sizing issue means that SDS-PAGE experiments involving membrane proteins are error-prone and complicated to interpret. Our group has invented a new and completely unique set of standards for membrane proteins proven to significantly increase the accuracy of SDS-PAGE measurements of membrane protein size. This product has the potential to be first-to-market, with sustained demand in academic research laboratories, in the biopharmaceutical industry, and in the medical diagnostics field. The research outlined in this I2I proposal describes the scientific validation and technical steps necessary for our invention to become a must-have product for membrane protein researchers, and a detailed plan for its prospective commercialization.