Discovery, Swedish firm join for protein study platform

HUNTSVILLE — Discovery Life Sciences has entered into an agreement with Olink to install the largest commercial platform of the Olink technology in the Americas, outside of Olink itself.

The platform will make Discovery a leading global certified service provider for the Olink Proximity Extension Assay technology, according to a news release. This is a unique anti-body based proteomic technology. Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins, the vital parts of living organisms.

The Olink platform, combined with Discovery’s other multi-omic biomarker capabilities, provides the market with a global “one-stop shop” to support the discovery and validation of plasma proteomics at scale, the release said.

Sweden-based Olink works to accelerate proteomics together with the scientific community, across multiple disease areas to enable discoveries and improve the lives of patients.

Discovery is a biospecimen and biomarker provider based in the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology.

“Olink’s PEA technology is a unique antibody-based proteomic technology with features that solve the dynamic range issue that has hindered proteomics: allowing the detection and quantitation of low and high abundant proteins,” said Dr. Michael Pisano, executive vice president of Proteomics at Discovery. “Discovery is excited to add this significant installation of the Olink technology to our extensive menu of proteomic services and optimized workflows that accelerate precision medicine programs through every stage of development, at any scale.”

The Olink PEA technology enables dual antibody recognition of the target proteins and high-fidelity DNA hybridization and detection.

Olink PEA has two readout options: next-generation sequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reaction. An NGS readout is ideal for large-scale protein biomarker discovery, while a qPCR readout provides a more targeted panel relevant to the subject of study.

Utilizing the Olink platform allows Discovery proteomics experts to measure the relative concentration of up to 3,072 proteins in a sample.

“Protein biomarker discovery can help bridge the gap between genomes and phenotypes, enabling improved understanding of real-time human biology and a stronger grasp of the transition from health to disease,” said Jon Heimer, CEO of Olink. “We are excited to support Discovery Life Sciences on their mission to embrace the promise of proteomics through our innovative and unique technology and help leverage its potential for their customers worldwide.”