Presented by

Dr. Stefanie Hauck

In depth proteome coverage is one of the key challenges in the current biomarker field and comprehensive robust quantifications are key to any (multi-) omics approach. Plasma is the most easily accessible clinical specimen and its protein composition reports on a person’s well-being at the time point of collection. Results from the Munich Ring Trials will be presented, which were performed as overarching standardization and quality assurance in the ClinspectM consortium aiming to successfully establish mass spectrometry for systems medicine and develop start-to-finish and fit-for purpose workflows. In brief, it is now possible to assess ~70 percent of the FDA approved biomarkers accessible by mass spec robustly with very low variations even between different labs.

However, the very imbalanced proportion of high-abundance proteins in plasma prevent detection of low-abundance proteins by mass spectrometry and thus most low-abundance proteins are missed. As a complementary and alternative approach, proximity extension assays (PEA) can also capture low-abundance proteins in a targeted fashion. Results from several cohort studies applying PEA will be presented as well as a direct comparison between mass spectrometry and PEA data from the same samples. Analytical depth and future strategies towards a comprehensive plasma proteome will be discussed.