Biosensors - Collaboration and Release Policy

The Consortium goal is to develop new classes of biosensors that may serve as prototypes for the design of related biosensors that can be generally implemented throughout the community. The focus, therefore, is on developing new concepts in biosensor design rather than the production of large quantities of similar sensors. The design and validation of these probes is being done by small groups of investigators (the Development Team) from either inside or outside the Consortium. Their role is to design and validate the probe in a biological system. The details of the probes and their validation will be made available simultaneously to both the public and Consortium members outside the Development Team. This will take place as soon as possible, but no latter than when the initial manuscript describing them is accepted for publication. No one outside the Development Team can use these probes prior to public distribution.

We realize the use of these probes can be challenging, and therefore we will try to post detailed protocols on their use elsewhere on these pages. In addition, please feel free to contact us about their use. If we can be of assistance in developing a new biosensor against a protein of interest to you, please contact us; we welcome collaborations where we can assist in their design and verification. If you have developed a new probe and wish us to assist in publicizing it or distributing it to the scientific community, we will also list your probe on our web site. If you are developing a probe to any of the targets on our list, please contact us so that we can coordinate to avoid overlap or duplication of efforts.

Some of these reagents are new technologies, and their synthesis and use can be challenging. To facilitate their wider application in the community, we will publish and/or post on this website detailed protocols for preparing and using them; please feel free to contact us for assistance. When cDNAs are involved, they will become publicly available upon publication. Because chemical reagents are not a renewable resource, whose synthesis can be time consuming and expensive, we may not be able to distribute them to all interested parties. Whenever distribution is expected to be a problem, we will attempt to transfer new technologies to companies to enable broader availability on reasonable terms. However some chemical reagents may need to be synthesized by interested parties. Contact us if we can help with this.

The Consortium has an active working relationship with BioSource International to develop and promote the production of phospho-specific antibodies to migration related proteins and the generation of a new PhosphoArray multiplexing format. Investigators with interesting migration-related targets should contact BioSource directly. It is generally expected that investigators will partner with BioSource by screening and validating the antibodies and thereby provide critical insight. BioSource will prioritize targets based on marker/site significance and perceived commercial value.