Scientists at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, together with researchers in Dundee and the United States, have developed a new method to quickly and more accurately investigate vital cell communication – a process that often goes wrong in cancer.

The new approach for enriching and analysing cancer samples will allow complex studies that aim to better understand the disease.

Cell signalling – the way a cell controls and coordinates its activities – is partly regulated through the addition of a chemical fragment – known as a phosphate group – to signalling proteins in a process known as phosphorylation. In order to understand how cell signalling changes or goes wrong in disease, scientists have to identify and analyse proteins containing a phosphate group.

However, because the levels of such phosphorylated proteins in a sample are typically low, an enrichment process must first be carried out. Existing methods for enrichment require manual input and results can vary between batches – an issue for large multi-centre projects. 

Now the collaboration, led by Dr Claus Jørgensen who heads the Systems Oncology group at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, has developed a new process for automated sample enriching.

Dr Jørgensen said: “Increasingly in cancer research, large scale studies are being carried out that look at changes in tumour protein levels and characteristics. We therefore need to be confident that our procedures can be carried out across multiple laboratories in a uniform manner.”

The group used commercially available magnetic particles and a handling robot to carry out their enrichment. They showed that their method was rapid, reproducible and highly accurate in purifying the protein samples.

Study author Dr Chris Tape, Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:

“Phosphorylation is a key process in the regulation of protein kinases – which are targets for many personalised cancer drugs. So it’s crucial that we can find new ways to study its effects.

“Our platform uses off-the-shelf components and we provide a free downloadable program so other labs can make use of it. We hope our automated enrichment platform will facilitate large-scale phosphoprotein research in multi-site proteomic projects.”