Hydrogel Nanoparticle Harvesting of Plasma or Urine for Detecting Low Abundance ProteinsRuben Magni *1, Benjamin H. Espina *2, Lance A. Liotta 1, Alessandra Luchini 1, Virginia Espina 1
1Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, George Mason University, 2Ceres Nanosciences
Several pathological biomarkers cannot be easily detected by current techniques because of their low concentration in biological fluids, the presence of degrading enzymes, and large amounts of high molecular weight proteins. Chemically functionalized hydrogel nanoparticles can harvest, preserve and concentrate low abundance proteins enabling the detection of previously undetectable biomarkers.