On this new episode of omg OMx, Kate Stumpo speaks to Bruker’s Mike Greig concerning the unbelievable potential of mass spectrometry in pharma. Uncover chosen highlights, or watch the complete episode beneath:
Mike Greig | omg OMx Podcast | Ep. 9
What are some vital classes you have got realized in your profession, and are there any vital those who have helped you alongside the best way?
After I began my profession in biotechnology, my boss was Wealthy Griffey. He ran our group like a Ph.D. program. Earlier than I left Isis Prescription drugs, I had nearly 20 publications masking every little thing from gas-phase chemistry of nucleotides to structural evaluation of native mass spec.
Being in biotech within the Nineties, you needed to be taught many various issues. You additionally needed to contribute to basic science to reveal to Isis that these completely different biotech firms deserved funding. It was a good time to be in biotech. Even now, in a small biotech firm, you should be taught every little thing to contribute meaningfully and make the corporate profitable.
Whereas at Isis Prescription drugs, I had the chance to be a visiting scientist with Marshall’s group, which happened at an ASMS. At my first ASMS, I met Jared Rader and Chris Hendrickson. Chris Hendrickson is now the director of the MagLab.
I met them on an elevator at ASMS. We acquired speaking and have become good mates. About three ASMSs later, we mentioned mass spec and our respective fields. That is after I went to their lab and began working with them as a visiting scientist.
Is there a science “OMG” second, even when it isn’t mass spec associated, that made you like the sphere of chemistry?
I went to Buffalo Grove Excessive College within the northwest suburbs of Chicago. I took AP chemistry with Dr. Bowles. He was an incredible particular person — tremendous energetic and made the category very fulfilling, which is sort of outstanding for an AP chemistry course.
A few weeks earlier than the Christmas break one yr, we did a saccharides experiment. We have been mixing all these compounds and made two ropes, a pink and a white. We twisted them up and he advised us to place a bend in them. Everyone within the class all of a sudden realized that we had simply made sweet canes. That is how he turned science into sweet for us. It confirmed us that science might embrace every kind of issues, and might be enjoyable and attractive.
What developments have you ever noticed within the fields that you’ve got been in, whether or not in pharma or another sectors?
The developments in drug discovery all through my profession have been superb in the best way approaches, throughput, and pace have developed. What a single scientist can contribute now’s outstanding, primarily because of expertise and the web.
The great factor about working with Bruker now’s that I get to go to folks in different pharma and biotech labs and speak concerning the science they’re doing intimately. What all people is doing in these labs is simply phenomenal at a person stage.
When it comes to mass spec, the developments within the usability and robustness of devices have been superb to witness. After I first began, I used a single quad instrument with fusion pumps. I needed to rebuild that instrument each different day to maintain it working. Though this was nice as a result of I realized quite a bit about mass spec by constructing, rebuilding, and changing parts, I might not advocate it for a high-throughput lab.
Now, the devices, software program, {hardware}—every little thing about mass spec is extra usable. Twenty years in the past, you’d by no means see devices in mass specs and biology labs. Now, they’re all over the place.
Picture Credit score: White_Fox/Shutterstock.com
Are you able to inform us extra concerning the evolution technique of a drug?
Most locations begin with a illness or therapeutic space, and you then determine what your goal goes to be. There are numerous publications, resembling Time Journal, that say, “Oh, most cancers is cured. We discovered the following goal,”. Whether or not it’s Time Journal, Analytical Chemistry, or Science, it’s a fixed bombardment of latest targets for oncology, coronary heart illness, or different therapeutic areas.
I primarily labored in oncology throughout my final 10 years at Pfizer, so I’m most acquainted with that discipline. However you consistently see all these targets which have the potential to treatment completely different varieties of breast most cancers, in addition to different varieties of most cancers. Due to this fact, the very first thing we do in pharma is that we validate these targets.
As soon as a goal has been validated via a number of organic, analytical, and different strategies, we proceed with a high-throughput screening marketing campaign. Whereas this high-throughput screening marketing campaign goes on, there may be additionally numerous work in biology, which incorporates analytical chemistry to determine the mechanism of motion.
If the mechanism of motion might be outlined, the probabilities of success in medical trials enhance dramatically. The subsequent stage entails progressing down the pipeline, getting a lead compound, and in search of biomarkers. Having good biomarkers additionally will increase the possibility of medical success considerably.
As you progress downstream, you get into the preclinical or pre-human research. Then you definately progress to the human research section one trial. This section usually assessments if the drug is tolerable to people. You then transfer to section two and section three the place the efficacy is evaluated and at last, the drug is able to hit the market.
What are some important limitations to the marketability of mass spectrometry within the pharma or biopharma business?
Mass spec is already extremely marketable to the pharma business. Virtually each single pharma lab has a mass-spec instrument in operation. To reinforce marketability, the bottom line is to enhance the convenience of use and software program.
There are numerous core mass spec labs the place the folks within the lab are gearheads who wish to do every little thing with the instrument and do numerous exploration. Alternatively, there are additionally recombinant protein labs the place the main focus is on making proteins for challenge groups, they usually merely wish to study and acquire an correct mass of the intact protein.
These labs need the mass spec to be only a walkup instrument. There are already many walkup devices for chemistry and biology. So, ease of use is already there. Now, the one query is whether or not we will make these advanced experiments simpler to do and reproducible.
Most typical varieties of experiments are already established. We are actually pushing into superior realms resembling top-down sequencing out of biofluids. Because the complexity of the samples will increase, the necessity for extra improvements may even enhance.
Concerning the speaker
Mike Greig is Government Director and International Pharma/BioPharma Market at Bruker Scientific, LLC.
omg OMx host: Kate Stumpo, Senior Market Supervisor at Bruker
About Bruker Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry
Uncover new methods to use mass spectrometry to immediately’s most urgent analytical challenges. Improvements resembling Trapped Ion Mobility (TIMS), smartbeam and scanning lasers for MALDI-MS Imaging that ship true pixel constancy, and eXtreme Decision FTMS (XR) expertise succesful to disclose Isotopic Wonderful Construction (IFS) signatures are pushing scientific exploration to new heights. Bruker’s mass spectrometry options allow scientists to make breakthrough discoveries and acquire deeper insights.
