Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a technique for measuring proteins that could expedite the research being done on diseases such as diabetes and cancer.
The technique, called neutron encoding, was developed in the laboratory of Joshua Coon, a biomolecular chemistry professor at UW-Madison. Coon’s research is focused on creating better methods for biologists to use in their work in order to create the most accurate data possible.
The neutron encoding technique allows scientists to compare up to 20 different protein samples at a time as opposed to only two, which is what was previously allowed. This analytic trick opens up many doors for researchers as proteins are a major component of muscle, the brain, blood and hormones. For this reason, studies in proteins reveal a lot of information about how a disease alters the processes of the body on a molecular level.
Graduate student Alexander Hebert works in Coon’s lab and was the lead author in an article published about the neutron encoding trick.
“The method they had was really good, but it had a lot of problems with it so we took that idea and transferred it into our own type of measurement,” he said.
These measurements are done using a high tech instrument called a mass spectrometer that gives information about the masses of chemical compounds. Scientists can use this mass information to determine if there has been any alterations in a protein’s make up. With the neutron encoding trick, instead of having to run the mass spectrometer for each individual protein in a study, scientists can run up to 20 proteins at a time which provides faster and less varied results, according to Hebert.
The economical nature of the neutron encoding trick can increase the amount of work that researchers do in a day which can potentially open up many doors in the field of disease research. The members of Coon’s lab are hopeful that this trick can aid scientist’s work in cancer and diabetes work as well as longevity of life and general biology research, Hebert said.
While the impact of neutron encoding is not clear, those in Coon’s lab are doing their best to improve this technique to make it as beneficial as possible to scientists in these biological fields.
“My focus is really working on making this better,” Hebert said.
One of the focuses of Hebert and his associates is expanding the available chemicals on the market related to protein studies. These chemicals are important to neutron encoding because they aid in identifying the different proteins from one another.
Neutron encoding is currently unique to researchers at UW-Madison, but Coon and Hebert are working towards commercializing this process so other labs can share the benefits of this analytic trick. Though mass spectrometers can be quite costly, according to Hebert, they are becoming more common in research labs around the country. The commercialization of the work done in Coon’s lab would give other scientists the opportunity to benefit from neutron encoding and can hopefully aid in the advancement of future biological research.
