Functional Proteomics activities in Big Pharma

Proteomics research is very useful throughout the entire research and development process of new drugs. Novel protein profiling technologies and platforms have increased the possibilities of identifying new drug targets and biomarkers, thus making them an important tool for developing more effective and safer drugs. Pharma and biotech companies are increasingly seeking to include biomarker information with every new CD delivered from the discovery departments. The sequencing,- and structure elucidating- capabilities by the new generation of mass spectrometers has made it possible to identify protein entities at both medium and low abundant expression regions . With respect to proteomic patterns and annotations identified from clinical samples offers a new dimension to clinical trials to evaluate the effects of drug treatment which also correlate to the mechanisms of drug action. Protein biomarkers can assist in diagnosing a disease at the biochemical level or discriminating the responses of different patients to the same medical treatment. A combination of proteomic strategies, including high resolution nano-capillary chromatography, 2-dimensinal gel electrophoresis, interfaced to mass spectrometry as well as protein microchip arrays has been recognised as important tools in biomarker discovery. Within AstraZeneca there is currently a major emphasis on the study of proteins and peptides from basic discovery to clinical development, with a global organisation to support it within the respective research and disease areas.. We have developed technology platforms that can identify biomarker candidates in a number of biofluids as well as tissue and cells.. Outlines and perspectives will be presented and discussed, exemplified by proteomics studies within various therapeutic areas of interest to AstraZeneca.