Cutting-edge protein biomarker analysis facility for WA

UWA and its commercial partners Bioplatforms Australia and Proteomics International have launched a cutting-edge facility to explore biological markers affecting medicine, agriculture, the environment and marine world.

The partners will co-invest over $4 million over the next four years in a newly expanded Western Australian Proteomics Facility which launched last week and will be run by Proteomics International and UWA.

The Facility is provided support by Bioplatforms Australia under the Commonwealth Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) and is also supported by the Western Australian Government through its co-investment in new NCRIS capital research infrastructure.

This facility brings new technology to WA and combines the expertise of Proteomics International and UWA to determine how proteins change in abundance and type in response to disease and harsh environments.

Proteomics International specialises in proteomics in an applied and industry-focused setting and is at the forefront of clinical proteomics, companion diagnostics, and diagnostics for quality control in the food industry.

Working in collaboration with the UWA Medical School, Proteomics International has recently launched a groundbreaking blood test, PromarkerD, that can predict the onset of diabetic kidney disease before clinical symptoms appear. 

The company is based within the Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research, where the two organisations first established the WA Proteomics Facility in 2006.

UWA has a focus on proteomics in an academic setting and training of researchers and postgraduate students in biological mass spectrometry. UWA proteomic researchers bring additional strategic focus in medical, agriculture, environmental and marine sciences and a vision for translational science.

UWA’s analysis of crop plant proteomes underpin new protein biomarker analysis of wheat yield and response to harsh environments like salinity, drought and extreme temperature.

The combined partnership will focus on emerging opportunities in clinical and agricultural proteomics. These are targeted quantitation of proteins across large sample sets and proteome flux measurements to assess the speed of protein synthesis and degradation processes in biological samples.

Together Proteomics International and UWA will engage with WA-based users to provide expertise in biomedical and non-biomedical uses of proteomics across the public and private sector, and develop specialised services from WA that will make a national and international contribution to Bioplatforms Australia.