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The spatial biology technology with proven clinical value
Quantifying Functions in Proteins (QF-Pro®) is a state-of-the-art bio-imaging platform able to spatially quantify functional proteomic events within fixed patient samples (FFPE, cell lines, PBMC, etc.), such as protein-protein interactions and protein post-translational modifications, at an unrivalled resolution and dynamic range. It does this by using an adaptation of Förster Resonance Energy transfer (FRET). This patented adaptation allows FRET to work reliably in patient tissue samples, with a high signal to noise ratio, for the first time.
Unlike competing technologies, such as the proximity ligation assay (PLA) or colocalisation experiments, QF-Pro® precisely measures these events at a ≤10nm resolution. Quantifying protein functions at this resolution yields mechanistic insights into signalling pathways and drug targets directly within samples.
QF-Pro® can be used in order to quantify a range of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) within tissue samples.
This includes intracellular PPIs such as HER2/HER3 dimerisation or Akt/PDK1 interaction states. QF-Pro® can also quantify intercellular interaction states such as those of immune checkpoints, i.e., PD-1/PD-L1, CTLA-4/CD80, TIGIT/CD155.
These intercellular PPIs are quantified in-situ without the need for cell permeabilisation. Other interaction states that can be quantified include DNA-protein interactions.
Our intracellular PTM assays quantify events such as the phosphorylation or methylation states of intracellular proteins. The spatial mapping of these PTMs allows the user to quantify the functional states (e.g. activation) of proteins within samples. PTMs that can be quantified by QF-Pro® also include glycosylation and acetylation events. These readouts are particularly useful for gaining insights on intracellular signalling pathway dynamics and designing small molecule therapeutics.
Optimised biomarkers include Akt activation state, PD1 activation state and STAT3 (Y705 or S727) activation state quantification.
Violet 3.0
Our flagship microscopy platform, Violet 3.0, simplifies FRET/FLIM to empower the use of QF-Pro®, removing all the complexity from this technology to make it accessible to researchers and clinicians of all backgrounds.
QF-Pro® Reagent Kits
Discover our flexible reagent kits which allow QF-Pro® to be used in any laboratory setting. Our kits contain everything you need to perform QF-Pro® analytics in house, and can be applied to any biomarker.
Validated Biomarkers
Discover the wide range of QF-Pro® validated assays that we offer, ranging from immune checkpoints to kinase activation states. Our flexible technology can be applied to quantify the function of any biomarker in any disease setting.
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