71.    David Myszka on Biacore, ABI, and the Expanding Power of SPR Chips

January 2, 2004 ProteoMonitor

(Q) How did you get involved with proteomics? (A) I did my graduate work creating new compounds and got interested in the properties of molecular recognition - like how and enzyme can recognize a substrate, and if you change that substrate it would either bind differently or might not bind at all. From there I went to SmithKline Beecham and started studying molecular recognition at the protein-protein level. A new technology was being developed that I started to apply: optical biosensors, or SPR-based biosensors. This technology allowed you to measure the interaction of any kind of molecule without labeling, and in real time, which meant you could get at the kinetics of a reaction. This was about 12 years ago. So [since then], we've mainly been working in that field of biosensors. Along that time, the whole interest in the proteome has come out, and it just so happens that this technology I've been working on is going to be really important for figuring ou the interaction, in a detailed level, of the proteome. (Q) Tell me about the technology you're working with now. (A) It's a commercial platform. What we've done is develop the applications. We've validated it [to show] that it's correct in returning the rate constant and things like that. The majority of the instruments come from Biacore. But now we're seeing more and more of these kinds of platforms being developed because there's a greater and greater need. So recently, Applied Biosystems released a similar kind of instrument based on an array format [the 8500 Affinity Chip Analyzer].