Amersham Biosciences Ranked Top Supplier in Proteomics Market

Amersham Biosciences (formerly Amersham Pharmacia Biotech) is the company that scientists most closely associate with products and services for protein science and proteomics research. Bio-Rad Laboratories ranked a close second in general awareness and was considered a leader in several categories of products used by protein researchers.

ARLINGTON, VA -- January 7, 2002 -- Amersham Biosciences (formerly Amersham Pharmacia Biotech) is the company that scientists most closely associate with products and services for protein science and proteomics research. Bio-Rad Laboratories ranked a close second in general awareness and was considered a leader in several categories of products used by protein researchers.

This finding is just one of the many insights derived from a multi-part survey of more than 1,000 scientists actively engaged in protein research. BioInformatics LLC (Arlington, VA), a leading provider of market research to the biotechnology industry, today announced the publication of The Tools & Techniques of Protein Science: Catalyzing the Future of Proteomics." This series is based on eight separate surveys investigating every facet of the protein research market.

In addition to market leaders Amersham Biosciences and Bio-Rad, other suppliers also fared well in specific product categories associated with proteomics: Invitrogen (protein expression and purification), Ciphergen and Packard Bioscience (protein microarrays), Agilent (microfluidics), Pierce Chemical (protein visualization), Applied Biosystems and MicroMass (mass spectrometry), and Clontech (in vivo biomolecular interactions).

This is the most comprehensive investigation of the proteomics market ever conducted," says Bill Kelly, President of BioInformatics. While a lot of attention has been paid to the implications of proteomics discoveries, until now no one had defined the market in terms of the products and services necessary to support proteomics research. Thirty-three percent (33%) of the scientific customers surveyed say they expect their budget for protein-related research to increase over the next 12 months."

BioInformatics LLC first created a map of the market based on the specific techniques used in each phase of protein research. The next step was to develop detailed questionnaires addressing the techniques, applications, products and suppliers associated with protein expression, purification, separation, visualization, identification and characterization. In addition, questionnaires were created to examine scientists use of protein databases and software as well as methods for studying biomolecular interactions.

The eight questionnaires were fielded to qualified members of The Science Advisory Board (http://www.scienceboard.net) - the worlds largest online panel of scientific customers. All participants in this study were first required to participate in an initial 29-question survey designed to characterize their experience with a variety of tools and techniques associated with protein science," according to Tamara Zemlo, PhD who oversees the activities of The Science Advisory Board. Based on their responses to this initial survey, we then invited qualified respondents to participate in subsequent surveys relating to the specific applications and techniques where they had experience," says Zemlo. Zemlo explains that it was important to conduct the study using multiple questionnaires because its increasingly evident that a combination of technologies is required to fully characterize a proteome."

The reports, which can be purchased separately or as a set, have yielded an enormous amount of data with important implications for the markets suppliers. For example, the top two cutting-edge proteomics technologies that scientists are considering using are protein chips and liquid-phase separation techniques. Additionally, academic researchers would like suppliers to focus on improving current separation and detection methods that would enable them to analyze closer to 100% of the proteome. In contrast, scientists working at pharmaceutical companies want suppliers to focus on automating all procedures in order to improve reproducibility and achieve higher throughput.

Although its still a relatively young field, proteomics is growing quickly thanks to the development, integration, and automation of requisite instrumentation and the emergence of sophisticated bioinformatic techniques," according to Zemlo. Of the thousand protein scientists who responded to our question about their involvement in large scale proteomics studies, roughly 35% are already conducting such studies, and an additional 29% intend to do so within the next year. Among proteomic researchers, the most common goal of their current studies is protein identification and characterization. But the most commonly stated goal of their future proteomic research is to understand protein function in a cellular context." Zemlo believes this is significant because theres an important distinction to be made between the molecular function of an isolated protein and the function of that protein in the complex cellular environment. This broader focus means suppliers must develop new technologies and techniques to support proteomics research and our study is designed to point them in the right direction."

ABOUT BIOINFORMATICS LLC

BioInformatics LLC (http://www.gene2drug.com) is a market research firm located in Arlington, Virginia. BioInformatics supports marketing, sales and R&D executives in the life science, medical device and pharmaceutical industries through published research reports, custom research and consulting. BioInformatics sponsors The Science Advisory Board (http://www.scienceboard.net), an online panel of more than 6,000 scientists, physicians and other biomedical customers from 62 countries who participate in surveys that address emerging technologies, test customer reactions to new product concepts, measure brand awareness and assess advertising effectiveness.

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