Human protein PCR assay

Applied Biosystems has introduced a line of TaqMan real-time PCR assays that enable researchers to rapidly detect and quantify proteins in human cell samples. The TaqMan Protein Expression Assays enable researchers to correlate relative levels of specific proteins with cell functions and behaviours, such as different disease conditions, or states of pluripotency or differentiation in stem cells.

The initial release of these molecular tools includes assays that enable relative quantification of protein markers for pluripotency from limited quantities of cultured human embryonic stem cells.

These molecular tools offer researchers a more quantitative, simpler and more standardised approach to protein analysis of various cell types, especially stem cells, compared to other more complex methods that also require large amounts of cell sample. The assays detect and quantify proteins by an innovative technology that combines an antibody-oligonucleotide-tagged immunoassay with a TaqMan Assay to generate real-time PCR data for specific proteins present in as little as 10-250 cells.

The initial release of these assays consists of six pre-designed protein expression assays. Four of the assays target stem cell pluripotency markers, and two target more commonly expressed proteins in a variety of cell types. When combined with Applied Biosystems TaqMan Assays for microRNA and messenger RNA and run on one of its family of real-time PCR systems, they form a quantitative protein analysis method that enables researchers to make comparisons of protein and RNA molecular markers identified on the same platform with the same starting samples.