Thermo Fisher announces new collaboration, board member

Serving science company Thermo Fisher Scientific has entered into a collaboration with Cedars-Sinai, a non-profit academic healthcare organisation, to develop a pathway to precision medicine through the development of robust and sensitive liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based workflows for clinical research applications.

Bringing together Thermo Fisher’s LC-MS technology with the expert insights of Cedars-Sinai’s physicians and clinical research scientists, the initiative aims to provide clinical research laboratories with specific and sensitive LC-MS-based workflows that would deliver increased confidence in data while detecting and analysing novel or known protein-based biomarkers within biological matrices. The companies seek to develop a pathway to a future that includes precision medicine by:

• developing robust data acquisition strategies for global plasma protein profiling and peptide selective reaction monitoring (SRM) assays for the direct analysis of plasma with or without enrichment;
• optimising quantitative intact protein analysis methods for plasma using Thermo Scientific Q Exactive Orbitrap mass spectrometer technology;
• assessing targeted protein workflows with Thermo Scientific’s triple quadrupole mass spectrometers for large quantitation assays within a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) environment.
   

“As the pathway to precision medicine advances in the lab, reliable and routine analytical workflows will be essential to quantify targeted and untargeted proteins and peptides in clinical samples with greater ease and sensitivity,” said Bradley Hart, Senior Director, clinical marketing, chromatography and mass spectrometry, Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Our goal is to develop new LC-MS-based methods to deliver high-quality and confident results regardless of user expertise and experience for laboratories seeking to identify novel biomarkers and monitor biotherapeutics, ultimately helping clinical research teams track and improve outcomes.”

Dr Jennifer Van Eyk, Director of the Advanced Clinical Biosystems Institute and the Cedars-Sinai Precision Biomarker Laboratories at Cedars-Sinai, said, “Thermo Fisher shares our vision for helping clinical research teams set new standards for excellence and innovation in patient care through precision medicine. The goal is to develop advanced LC-MS-based workflows for the untargeted screening and targeted quantitation of protein-based biomarkers for critical disease states, which hold the potential to benefit not only our own patients, but also the wider clinical community.”

Thermo Fisher Scientific has separately announced that it has elected Debora Spar (pictured) to its board of directors, bringing the company’s total number of board members to 13.

Spar earned her PhD in Government from Harvard University and her Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She was the Spangler Family Professor at Harvard Business School for 17 years and served as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development.

Currently a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, Spar served as President of Barnard College from 2008 to 2017, where she led several key initiatives to highlight the leadership and advancement of women. She served as President and CEO at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts from 2017 to 2018, served as a director of Goldman Sachs until 2017, and is currently a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a trustee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Spar’s research has focused on issues related to international political economy, examining how rules are established in new or emerging markets and how firms and governments together shape the evolving global economy. More recently, her research has concentrated on gender and technology, and the interplay between technological change and broader social structures.

“Debora brings a unique perspective on technology’s role in shaping society and the global economy,” said Jim Manzi, Chairman of the board of Thermo Fisher. “She will be an asset to our board as Thermo Fisher expands its commitment to accelerate scientific innovation in emerging and evolving markets.”

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