BALTIMORE –– As protein-based drugs become more important in treating major diseases, producers face the critical challenge of deeply characterizing these highly-complex molecules for efficacy and safety, as well as to meet quality requirements. Now there’s a new software tool designed to increase the speed, quality and confidence in comprehensive biotherapeutic protein characterization useful for drug development and production quality control.

Thermo Scientific PepFinder software is making its debut at the 62nd ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics, booth 127, and at the company’s hospitality suite: Holiday, Baltimore Hilton.

PepFinder software is designed to streamline relative and absolute quantitation, and identification of proteins from biological samples using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Therapeutic proteins such as monoclonal antibodies, interferons, and insulin must be produced in biologically-active forms that have proper folding and have specific post-translational modificiations (PTM). Traditional analysis of these complex biological molecules is highly complex and time-consuming. PepFinder software uses multidimensional dynamic search capabilities to automatically integrate complex data into concise reports.

“This is a new paradigm for peptide mapping data analysis,” said Ken Miller, vice president, marketing mass spectrometry for Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Customers can expect to reduce analysis time from weeks to hours in some cases, while generating high-confidence, comprehensive characterization reports, including known and unknown modifications.”

“Using PepFinder, a complex protein was analyzed with great details (including PTMs), and with great ease and speed!” said Shiaw-Lin (Billy) Wu, Head of Analytical Sciences at BioAnalytix and Research Associate Professor at Northeastern University.

PepFinder software, based on Mass Analyzer software licensed from Amgen, is compatible with Thermo Scientific LC-MS instruments, including the industry-leading high resolution, accurate-mass Orbitrap-based systems. This software is designed for fast, high-quality PTM profiles and peptide identifications based on a novel prediction algorithm. The software displays sequence coverage maps, automates relative changes in site specific PTMs for rapid monitoring of modifications in a single sample or across sample comparison. The software is written to provide an automated workflow for glycopeptides ID, disulfide bond mapping and other common PTM’s, including oxidation, deamidation and phosphorylationThis can eliminate time consuming and error-prone manual PTM mapping.

To learn more information about PepFinder, contact your Thermo Fisher Scientific representative today or visit us online at www.thermoscientific.com/pepfinder.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of $17 billion and 50,000 employees in 50 countries. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics and increase laboratory productivity. Through our four premier brands – Thermo Scientific, Life Technologies, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services – we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive support. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

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