Volition is sponsoring a GenomeWeb webinar on Wednesday 20th April, titled ‘Novel Proteomics Approach to Epigenetic Profiling of Circulating Nucleosomes.
The webinar will be led by Axel Imhof and Terry Kelly. Axel is a professor for protein analytics at the Biomedical Center of the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (LMU) and the director of the Proteomics Core Facility of LMU’s Biomedical Center. His lab is among the world’s leading groups for the characterization of chromatin-bound proteins and the characterization of histone modifications using mass spectrometry. Axel is also the co-founder of EpiQMAx, a company dedicated to the quantitative analysis of histone modifications in clinical samples. Terry Kelly, our chief innovation officer, has over 10 years of experience in epigenetics including developing novel technologies and seeing them through to commercialization.
The webinar will focalise on how epigenetic biomarkers are emerging as tools for the early detection of various diseases including cancer. However, to date, tools to investigate candidate epigenetic biomarkers directly from patient blood for diagnosis or patient stratification are limited. Mass spectrometry is a powerful solution for biomarker discovery, but the high complexity of blood, along with the abundance of blood proteins, presents significant challenges for using mass spectrometry as a discovery tool.
Volition has developed a new method for detecting and quantifying circulating nucleosomes and their associated modifications in plasma samples. This method is based on the capture of intact circulating nucleosomes using a newly developed immunoprecipitation method followed by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (Nu.Q® Capture-MS).
To identify histone post-translational modification signatures of circulating nucleosomes and subsequently discover new biomarkers, Volition, working in conjunction with Axel Imhof, implemented this innovative method in a series of pilot studies utilizing plasma samples from cancer patients and healthy controls.
During the session, Professor Imhof will introduce the Nu.Q® Capture-MS technique, outline findings from the pilot studies, and highlight how Nu.Q® Capture could be deployed as an upstream blood sample processing step to facilitate the discovery of new biomarkers. Dr. Kelly will outline how the technique could add to Volition’s epigenetic toolkit and explain how the company works with other organizations, like EpiQMAx, through its Nu.Q® Discover initiative.
The hour-long webinar will take place on Wednesday, April 20, 2022 at 01:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time, if you would like to attend click here https://bit.ly/20042022 to register.
