Description

The pace at which protein research is currently being conducted indicates that more efficient and rapid means of expressing and purifying proteins must be developed. While there has been a consistent demand for the tools to purify proteins from whole cells or tissues, this technologically stable market continues to grow. The increase in the number of biological therapeutics in clinical trials as well as the quest to elucidate the proteome have generated renewed interest in these techniques, which are fundamental to almost all facets of life science research. Scientists are uncovering more and more information on the implications of proteomics and genomics in disease. As a result, the techniques that define protein purification provide the bedrock for studies on these topics, thereby making the act of purifying proteins a highly valued step in the research process. However, as knowledge of protein functionality is increasing, significant improvements to the field of protein purification appear to have plateaued in recent years. The advent of affinity chromatography and tagged purification systems several years ago was a tremendous boon for protein science; however, since their introduction to the market, little has been done to improve upon these techniques. Automated purification systems promise to minimize required expertise and increase the speed by which protein samples can be isolated and analyzed, but researchers continue to struggle with basic issues such as sample purity, low yields and sample degradation. Based on a 32-question survey of over 580 industrial and academic scientists who utilize protein purification methodologies in their research, Protein Purification Systems is an essential tool for understanding customer needs and identifying opportunities to increase customer satisfaction. It examines product attributes, satisfaction levels with suppliers, and several products and techniques commonly used by researchers in addition to investigating customer loyalty across all products within the protein purification value chain. In this highly competitive, technology-driven market, meeting and exceeding customer needs is essential for suppliers that want to increase or even maintain market share. This report will help suppliers exploit opportunities to differentiate themselves from competitors through better customer understanding and the development of better protein purification tools. Report Highlights Protein Purfication Systems: Market Opportunities for Research Product Suppliers contains over 50 charts and/or tables and more than 15 cross-tabulations for the 32 survey questions. Below is a glimpse of the key findings derived from just a few of the survey questions: • In vitro activity assay (60%), antibody development/production (54%) and protein:protein interaction assays (44%) are the top three applications for which purified proteins are used. (Question 7) • According to most respondents, a major problem encountered when performing protein purification is co-purifying proteins. (Question 12) • Over 60% of the scientists surveyed do not purchase cell lysis products from a commercial source. (Question 13) • Of the tagged protein/purification systems mentioned, nearly one-half of the respondents primarily use a polyhistidine / metal affinity system. (Question 17) • Qiagen, Amersham Biosciences and Sigma-Aldrich are the most frequently cited primary suppliers of purification resin/columns for tagged protein/purification systems. (Question 21) • Over 45% of the scientists surveyed believe that 12 preps per run is ideal for an automated protein purification system. (Question 29) (electronic copy also includes 1 print copy)

Table of Contents

Section 1 Analysis and Interpretation of Survey Results 1-1 Overview 1-2 Introduction 1-3 Objectives 1-4 Experimental Design 1-5 Product Mix 1-6 Technical 1-7 Throughput and Growth 1-9 Automation 1-11 Tagged and Untagged Proteins 1-13 Protein Purity 1-14 Products 1-15 Cell Lysis Buffers 1-16 Vectors 1-18 Purification Columns and Resins 1-20 Tag-Specific Antibodies 1-21 Cleavage of Protein Tags 1-22 Conclusion 1-23 Similarities Among Academia and Industry 1-24 Customer Preferences Along the Value Chain 1-29 Creating Customer Loyalty Along the Value Chain Section 2 Study Methodology and Demographics 2-1 Objectives 2-1 Comments 2-5 Assumptions 2-5 Definition of Terms 2-5 Market Segment 2-6 Job Position 2-6 Geographic Region 2-6 Areas of Research 2-7 Questionnaire Section 3 Presentation of Survey Data Purification of Recombinant Protein 3-1 Systems used to express recombinant protein 3-4 Use of protein purification 3-5 Types of proteins most often purified 3-7 Primary reasons for purifying a certain type of protein 3-8 Categories of proteins that are purified 3-9 Origin of proteins that are purified 3-10 Applications for which purified proteins are used 3-11 Typical number of purified protein preps performed per month 3-12 Predicted future change in purified protein preps 3-15 Average protein yield per prep 3-16 Final purity of protein preps on average 3-17 Problems and limitations encountered in protein purification Techniques 3-18 Commercial cell lysis products used 3-20 Availability of flexible scaling in current system 3-21 Column chromatography methods used for purifying non-tagged proteins Tagged Protein Purification 3-22 Tagged protein/purification methods used 3-23 Primary tagged protein/purification method used 3-24 Primary supplier of vectors 3-26 Satisfaction with specific features of vectors used 3-28 Overall satisfaction with vectors used 3-29 Primary supplier of purification resin/columns 3-31 Satisfaction with specific features of the purification resin/columns used 3-33 Overall satisfaction with the purification resin/columns used 3-34 Preferred supplier of primary antibodies against the tag 3-36 Percentage of time the tag is cleaved off from the protein 3-37 Proteases used when cleaving protein tags 3-38 Techniques used to monitor success/completeness of cleavage Automation 3-39 Interest in automation of protein purification 3-43 Ideal number of preps per run in an automated protein purification system 3-44 Minimum yield of protein required per prep Section 4 Tagged Protein Purification Systems Profile 4-1 Polyhistidine / metal affinity system (Respondents = 247) 4-5 Glutathione S-transferase / glutathione affinity system (Respondents = 106) 4-9 FLAG / antibody affinity system (Respondents = 54) 4-13 HA Tag affinity system (Respondents = 36) Each profile includes: Primary supplier of vectors Satisfaction with specific features of vectors used Overall satisfaction with vectors used Primary supplier of purification resin/columns Satisfaction with specific features of the purification resin/columns used Overall satisfaction with the purification resin/columns used Section 5 Appendices 5-1 Insights & Perspectives 5-18 Cross-Tabulations of Survey Data 5-35Other Recent Publications 5-44 About BioInformatics 5-45 Our Valued Clients