Applied Proteomics, Inc. - Improving Healthcare

Improving Healthcare

Billions of dollars are wasted each year with the "trial and error" approach that is often the system’s only option. A telling statistic is that approximately 93% of total healthcare dollars are spent on care and only 1% on diagnostics. New diagnostic tools are necessary to radically reorient that focus. One set of tools are biomarkers, which provide early warning or prevention of disease. The early stages of a disease are typically when treatment is most effective and severity of disease can be limited.

Proteomics, the study of proteins expressed by the body, has the greatest potential for biomarker discovery. Protein expression profiles, determined from easy-to-collect body fluids (e.g., blood, urine, saliva, etc.), represent a snapshot of the current health status of an individual, a sum of the influence of genetics and environment. However, assaying such markers is not without its challenges, and proteomics has failed in the past due to immature technologies and a lack of process control. Lack of control adds noise and variability that block effective biomarker discovery and validation.

Applied Proteomics, Inc. was founded in May 2007 by Dr. Danny Hills (Applied Minds, Inc.) and Dr. David Agus (USC-Keck School of Medicine) to make proteomics-based biomarker discovery practical and productive. Using their combined expertise in oncology, proteomics, systems control, and computation, the company has developed the leading protein biomarker discovery platform. API's systems control and computational expertise as well as recent technological innovations (e.g., improved instrumentation, faster computing, and extensive genome annotations) make proteomics-based biomarker discovery possible as a replicable, industrial application. API has demonstrated that its approach leads to superior data (better signal, less noise), which leads to better results (more protein features and biomarkers observed). Better results will lead to improved diagnostics and a more efficient and effective healthcare system.

Disease Progression