一個聯合小組已經開發了一項血液診斷檢測方法，用以檢測肝臟疾病的進程，從而減少為了制定治療方案而在丙型肝炎患者中進行痛苦而昂貴的肝臟活檢的需要。

Ciphergen生物系統公司(Fremont, CA, USA)將與大學Galveston醫學分校(UTMB, USA)合作研究該項目。Ciphergen將提供配套蛋白質組學解決方案，進行尋找生物指標和開發新型檢測方法，用以分析檢測UTMB收集的標本。這包括Ciphergen公司的Deep Proteome、Pattern跟蹤和處理、蛋白質芯片系統。Ciphergen將在制定協議過程中，擁有首先選擇和談判排他性許可證，并參與UTMB正在進行的肝臟疾病的研究之中。

UTMB病理學教授John R. Petersen和內科學教授Ned Snyder教授研究了HCV感染如何損傷肝臟。他們一直對如何確定HCV導致肝臟損傷的血液標記物十分感興趣。醫生們一致認為這種生物指標十分有利于鑒別需要治療和需要監測的患者。為了鑒別生物學指標，Ciphergen將使用該公司以蛋白質芯片檢測為基礎的表面增強激光解析/電離--時間--飛行--質譜分析(SELDI-TOF-MS)系統。

Search for Liver Disease Markers
 
An alliance has been formed to develop a diagnostic blood test that can measure the progress of liver disease and thereby reduce the need for painful and costly biopsies in patients with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) to identify the need for treatment.

Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. (Fremont, CA, USA) will collaborate with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB, USA) on the project. Ciphergen will provide its suite of proteomic solutions, designed for biomarker discovery and development of assays, to analyze clinical samples collected at UTMB. This suite includes Ciphergen’s Deep Proteome, Pattern Track, and Process and ProteinChip systems. Ciphergen will have a first option to negotiate an exclusive license to discoveries made during the agreement and will take part in UTMB’s ongoing research in liver disease.

John R. Petersen, Ph.D., professor of pathology at UTMB, and Ned Snyder, M.D., professor of internal medicine at UTMB, have been studying how HCV infection can damage or destroy the liver. They have been interested in using blood markers that can help determine the amount of liver damage that has been caused by HCV. Doctors agree that such biomarkers would be extremely useful in identifying which patients require treatment and for monitoring patients. To identify biomarkers, Ciphergen will use its ProteinChip array-based surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization--time-of-flight--mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) system.