Development and commercialization of a kit for profiling enzyme activity in liquid biopsies

Ubiquitination is a post-translational modification (PTM) that is critical for numerous biological processes, including cell cycle, autoimmunity, immune responses, and cancer. This has instigated vast interest in targeting the ubiquitin machinery, and in elucidating ubiquitin-dependent events in pathologies. However, a key constraint is the lack of high-throughput methodologies for monitoring ubiquitination in clinical samples. Current tools mostly provide a qualitative sense of ubiquitin substrates and are limited by the need for unique expertise and large amounts of biological material. To address this gap, we have established a PTM-profiling tool that utilizes enzymatic activity in biological samples (e.g. liquid biopsies), enabling readouts of several PTMs, across thousands of proteins, for multiple samples simultaneously. We will employ our platform technology to the discovery and development of ubiquitin-related diagnostics and therapeutic agents in the field of autoimmunity.