Generally, MRM assays are the settings applied to a mass spectrometer to identify and measure proteins in a sample.  Large-scale and productive observation is only possible with them.  MRM assays are increasingly in demand by biological researchers as the field of MRM proteomics continues its rapid growth, and single, non-standardized assay development is found to be inefficient.

More specifically, an MRM assay consists of the optimal selection of precursor and fragment ions, as well as their energy used to fragment the peptide and the calibrated elution time of the peptide from the liquid-chromatography column. In particular, the calibrated elution time is important in the common situation where many peptides have to be analyzed in a single run. Having an accurately assigned elution time allows operating the mass spectrometer in a time-resolved matter. The mass spectrometer acquires data for a particular peptide only around the determined elution time, not during the whole analyses. Therefore, up to 20-times more peptides can be measured in a single analysis using time-resolved MRM, though increases of 10-times throughput is typical.

Biognosys developed a method to produce MRM assays in a high-throughput manner, covering entire proteomes. This patented approach uses libraries of synthetic peptides which are analyzed by mass spectrometry, instead of the endogenous peptides in the sample of interest. This approach benefits from the high concentration and almost infinite amount of the peptide.

Biognosys and the Institute of Molecular System Biology of the ETH Zurich (Switzerland) together with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle (USA) created an MRM assay library for the human proteome. This large-scale project involved the development of high-quality MRM assays for literally all known human proteins, allowing the quantification of the proteins in complex samples with a minimum in effort. Biognosys offers the assay library as well as companion products through the newly accessible MRMbase platform.  Please visit MRMbase.com or contact us for more information.