Challenge

Protein Discovery, Inc. is a privately held life sciences company that develops solutions for molecular research, drug development, and medical diagnostics using high throughput mass spectrometry.  Protein Discovery hired MPR’s Technology Group to transform a proof of concept for a proteomics laboratory device and develop it into a prototype for Beta testing.  The company's imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) service allows pharmaceutical and biotech customers to gain important insights into disease progression, drug treatment and metabolic response.  Protein Discovery is developing a powerful suite of sample preparation products specifically designed to meet the data quality and throughput demands of customers using mass spectrometry in the life sciences industry.

Protein Discovery selected MPR because of the firm's deep expertise in biotech and pharmaceutical technology.  Although Protein Discovery had a laboratory proof of concept that it had tested, the company needed MPR's team to develop a method for packaging the technology in the form of a prototype instrument with disposable cartridges.  The project's first technical challenge was designing an instrument that could process 96 independent samples at once.  Because electrophoresis requires a controlled current to each sample, the team needed to design the instrument to provide independent current control for all 96 samples. 

Designing the disposable cartridges used in the instrument also proved to be a challenge.  The cartridge wells were designed to keep samples sealed and independent from one another, ensuring no cross contamination.  The instrument had to be designed so that each sample would be electrically isolated from the other samples during testing.  After testing is completed, the sample capture slides are removed and put into a mass spectrometer for analysis.  The capture slides are designed to work directly with the major mass spectrometers available on the market.

The project also included software challenges, such as the client's desire to have a separate user interface running on a windows PC. 

Approach

Using MPR's distinctive product development process, MPR’s multi-disciplined team started from scratch to identify and develop the requirements for the instrument and disposable cartridges, using the client's proof of concept.  They then developed a conceptual design for testing and evaluation. 

Meeting the software challenge, MPR designed a built-in graphical user interface that would allow the person conducting the test to communicate with the instrument via an Ethernet connection.  This required designing software to control the process of testing 96 separate channels and providing information back to the user in real time as the testing occurred. 

Solution

MPR designed and built 12 identical prototype instruments for use in Beta testing.  Because the prototype was built with an extensive computer software program, the end user has the flexibility to determine what type of test to run on each of the 96 samples.

Benefits

While Beta testing is under way, MPR's client expects this first-of-its-kind instrument to be favorably received by its test participants, which include pharmaceutical companies conducting drug discovery research and university research laboratories.  Following the Beta testing, the client expects to introduce to market in late 2006 a working system that will dramatically increase productivity in the area of imaging mass spectrometry.  The project, which started with a proof of concept and concluded with prototype production, was completed in just under a year's time.