Sample Preparation

Calibrant has extensive experience in the extraction and isolation of proteins from matrices ranging from purified cell lines to formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues. We believe that our sample preparation methods provide the highest quality protein extraction currently available, particularly for the analysis highly limited specimens such as small numbers of cells procured by laser capture microdissection of clinical tissues. Matrices and specimen types routinely processed in our state-of-the-art facilities include:

Cell lines
Fresh frozen tissues
FFPE tissues
LCM-procured cells	(using Gemini™)
Bacteria
Yeast
Blood
Saliva
Urine
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)

FFPE Tissue Analysis

Calibrant has particular experience in the extraction of protein from FFPE tissues, and is a leader in the proteomic analysis of these specimens. While FFPE is the standard method to collect and store patient tissues and enormous FFPE specimen banks are available with extensive clinical data for biomarker mining, the high degree of covalent cross-linking in FFPE tissues hinders efficient extraction of proteins and prevents subsequent proteomics efforts from revealing the valuable information sequestered in archival tissues. Calibrant has developed optimized procedures to extract protein from FFPE tissues, enabling highly efficient and reproducible protein retrieval.

When combining FFPE tissue extraction with laser capture microdissection for specimen microdissection, effective global profiling of fewer than 10,000 isolated cells can be realized by employing the Gemini™ platform.