Advantages of Functional Proteomics and Reverse Phase Protein Array
What is functional proteomics?
Functional proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins at the functional activity level, such as expression and modification.
Advantages of studying functional proteomics
Studies of complex diseases such as cancer have shown that genetic alterations do not account for all of the causes of the disease. Changes in protein levels and structure have also been shown to play critical roles in tumor development and progression, which are not reflected by genetic changes. In cancers, several genetic and epigenetic changes are often required for development of the disease. Studying large-scale epigenetic changes such as protein phosphorylation or cleavage will greatly aid in understanding the causes and determining effective treatment of cancers and other complex diseases.
What is RPPA?
Reverse phase protein array (RPPA) is a high-throughput antibody-based technique with the procedures similar to that of Western blots. Proteins are extracted from tumor tissue or cultured cells, denatured by SDS , printed on nitrocellulose-coated slides followed by antibody probe. Our RPPA platform currently allows for the analysis of >1000 samples using at least 130 different antibodies.
Advantages of RPPA
- Inexpensive, high-throughput method utilizing automation for increased quality and reliability
- Sample preparation requirements are similar to that of Western blots
- Complete assay requires only 40 microliters of each sample for 150 antibodies
- Robust quantification due to serial dilution of samples