Biomarkers & Personalized Medicine Research and Diagnostics

SomaLogic is working to find biomarkers for human disease (in blood or other matrices) and to quantify thousands of proteins at a

time using small sample volumes, readily available laboratory equipment, and binding reagents with higher affinity and specificity than even the very best monoclonal antibodies. These reagents are novel aptamers called SOMAmers or Slow Off-rate Modified Aptamers. The platform we use is equivalent in many ways to an array of ELISA's. Each protein is quantified at high accuracy, with median limits of detection of about 1 pM. We quickly find biomarkers for many diseases versus appropriate controls, and those biomarkers may be used in a focused "small-plex" format. The beauty of the work is that discovery and diagnostic products flow together seamlessly. These protein biomarkers have the potential to alter the way medicine is practiced.

Anyone outside NIST wishing to attend must be sponsored by a NIST employee and receive a visitor badge.

For more information, contact Kum Ham at 301-975-4203.

Colloquia are videotaped and available in the NIST Research Library.

Graphic provided by the speaker.