Denator

Denator AB is a Swedish biotechnology company that develops and markets products that stabilize biological tissues and fluids from the moment of sampling. Stabilization and standardization of sample preparation processes significantly enhances the quality of data obtained from analytical techniques used later.

Today, protein studies have a central role in basic research, drug development and diagnostics. In order to utilize proteins as biomarkers for cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, it is vital that proteins and their modifications can be analyzed and detected in the biological sample. Since disease biomarkers are present in low concentrations, biological samples of high-quality are required in order to draw biologically relevant conclusions regarding for instance differences in protein levels between healthy and sick individuals.

Therefore, comparative protein studies are dependent on the reliability of the sample to reflect, as accurately as possible, the in vivo state of the proteins in order to make correct analysis of the sample. Taking a sample has drastic effects even within a very short timeframe. Ex vivo degradation is a rapid process that causes significant changes in the levels and modifications of proteins. This causes problems with reproducibility and detectability only minutes after sample extraction and could lead to misleading conclusions. Studies of these ex vivo changes in tissue samples have identified a number of proteins that appear extra sensitive to ex vivo degradation [1].

Today, rapid freezing of the biological sample is often used to temporarily pause this activity. However this also induces further rupturing of membranes and destruction of cellular structures. Upon thawing, massive change of protein integrity and modifications is induced. An alternative to stop ex vivo degradation is to add chemical enzyme inhibiting cocktails or chemical manipulations such as cross-linking or pH alterations to the biological sample. The usage such additions can be of reversible character, unfavorable for certain downstream analysis techniques, or limited in some other way, e.g. toxic [2].

Denator's proprietary technology, the Stabilizor system, rapidly and uniformly transfers heat to the sample which breaks the hydrogen bonds but conserves covalent peptide bonds along the amino acid chain. This is accomplished by automatic measurement of the sample followed by conductive heating, assisted by pressure, thereby ensuring the effectiveness of the treatment. This enables scientists to stop sample degradation immediately and maintain the stability of sample components throughout the analytical workflow without the need of additives.

Established in 2004, Denator is headquartered at the Biotech Center in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2007, Denator opened its R&D facility in Uppsala, Sweden.

References

[1] Skold, K et al., The significance of biochemical and molecular sample integrity in brain proteomics and peptidomics: Stathmin 2-20 and peptides as sample quality indicators. Proteomics, 2007, 7, pp. 4445–4456

[2] M. Svensson et al., Heat Stabilization of the Tissue Proteome: A New Technology for Improved Proteomics, J. Proteome Res, (2009), 8 (2), pp 974–981

Denator AB
Headquarters	Arvid Wallgrens Backe 20	SE-413 46 Gothenburg	Sweden
Research	Dag Hammarskjölds väg 10 A	SE-752 37 Uppsala	Sweden
Founded	2004
Industry	Stabilization of biological samples
Products	Stabilizor T1 Maintainor Tissue
Website	www.denator.com

External links

• Denator AB