The last few decades have seen rapid advances in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research. From the development of new brain imaging methods to novel biomarkers, to the approval of immunotherapies targeting proteins at the core of the disease, there’s much hope for breakthroughs that may prevent its devastating impacts. Along with these advances, researchers have realized that they need to understand much more about the proteins underlying the disease to more accurately stage patients and develop more effective treatments. Principal among these proteins is the microtubule-associated protein tau, which is known to aggregate in the brains of AD patients and is deeply associated with AD’s cognitive impacts. Researchers have made strides in targeting this and other AD-associated proteins, but all available treatments still only modestly slow and do not prevent cognitive decline. Gaining a deeper understanding of tau and its roles in not just AD, but many neurodegenerative diseases represents a critical path forward.
Toward this end, at Nautilus we’re proud that researchers are using the Nautilus Voyager™ Platform and its underlying Iterative Mapping methodology to explore AD and related dementias at an unprecedented level of depth. They’re deploying the Tau Proteoforms Assay to quantify tau variants or proteoforms (the versions of proteins found in biological systems) with singlemolecule resolution and discovering how changes in the previously hidden proteoform landscape may be implicated in disease. In this edition of the Nautilus Biotechnology “Proteomics and neuroscience” eBook, we’re excited to:
- Dive into tau biology
- Share what researchers are learning about tau and its role in AD using the Nautilus Voyager Platform
- Invite you to use the Nautilus Voyager Platform in your own work through the Iterative Mapping Early Access Program – the first offering available through this program is the Tau Proteoforms Assay, and we’ll be adding new offerings including broadscale proteomics and additional proteoforms soon.
