Arka Acharyya, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, Rahara
Proteomics is an important topic in basic biology to advance Biotechnology, bioinformatics to epidemiology. It is a crucial link between genomics and metabolomics. So, Protein fingerprinting is too essential for modern biotechnology. Conventionally fingerprinting of proteins is done by mass spectroscopy. But, it is both a time-consuming and cost-intensive method of protein fingerprinting. The large-scale study of the entire complements of proteins and peptides is essential for the application of data-driven biology and the development of personalized medicines. So, advanced Medical science demands fast and reliable proteome analytical methods without compromising quantitative precision and data completeness.
To address these challenges, researchers from the University of Berlin and the Francis Crick Institute have developed an innovative solution, named the Scanning SWATH Acquisition technique. Scanning SWATH is a mass spectroscopy-based technique also called Sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion spectra mass spectrometry or SWATH-MS. It is a data-independent acquisition (DIA) method that capable of measuring samples containing thousands of proteins within just a few minutes. This technique is 70% more efficient and also cheaper to quantified proteins as compared to previous methods.
To demonstrate the potentiality of the technique, researchers used blood plasma collected from COVID-19 patients. From these samples, they distinguished 11 previously unknown proteins that are severe markers of disease. These entire measurements and analysis took only a few minutes. Work has been published in Nature Biotechnology.
Speeding up the efficiency, researchers developed advanced computer algorithms and changed the mass spectrometer’s electric fields. These improvements increased efficiency to enable deep proteome coverage at a high throughput level. It was previously unbelievable in proteomics. Researchers are hopeful about this high-flow scanning SWATH technology as it will be empowered biomedical scientists in the upcoming days.
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Source:Messner,Christoph B., et al. “Ultra-Fast Proteomics with Scanning SWATH.” Nature Biotechnology, Mar. 2021, pp. 1–9. www.nature.com, doi:10.1038/s41587-021-00860-4.
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