Waters Corporation recognized the Center for Proteomics at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) as a Waters Center of Innovation.

In particular, Waters recognized Dr Konstantinos Petritis, head of TGen's Center for Proteomics, and his team for their leadership in the research of proteomics and biomarker discovery and verification.

In a ceremony at TGen's headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., TGen president and research director Dr Jeffrey Trent told TGen employees and representatives from Waters Corporation that TGen is moving with a great sense of urgency toward helping cancer patients.

"Whether it's through our discovery-based research or our clinical programmes, our focus is to provide patient benefit as quickly as we can. My hope and expectation is that in many unique ways the Waters Centers of Innovation Program will help us accelerate our research and further our goal of providing personalized medicine to each patient in the future," said Dr Trent.

"It was Dr. Trent's vision for translational medicine that led us to the relationship we have with TGen today. By formalizing our relationship with them we want to help TGen achieve its objectives and make personalized medicine a reality, partly by taking technology to the next level. I look forward to doing good science together for years to come," said Mark Groudas, Waters sr. vice president, Americas Business Operations.

TGen is now among an elite group of fewer than 20 partners worldwide that are part of the Waters Centers of Innovation. While most of the member institutes of this circle are well established, TGen (created in 2002) is one of the youngest organizations to be named.

"One of our core strengths is in biomarker discovery and verification. With the infrastructure we've put into place, we are making steady progress in the development of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for lung, colon, breast and pancreatic cancer as well as other diseases. We're thankful to Waters for their support of our programs, not just in terms of instrumentation, but in terms of their training, technical support and services," said Dr Petritis.

Dr Petritis is one of the few select researchers participating in Waters Center of Innovation Program. Others include Prof. Jeremy Nicholson, Imperial College London; Prof. John Engen, Northeastern University, Boston, Mass.; Prof. James Scrivens, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK; Prof. David Cowan of Kings College London; Prof. Arthur Moseley of Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Prof. Julie Leary of the University of California - Davis; and Prof. Albert J. Fornace, Jr., Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Washington, D.C.; Prof. Marcos Eberlin, University of Campinas, Brazil; Joseph Dalluge, University of Minnesota; Prof. Ganesh Anand, National University of Singapore; Dr. Chang Hsu, Future Fuels Institute; and Prof. Vladimir Shulaev, University of North Texas Department of Biological Sciences.

TGen's Center for Proteomics laboratory currently uses Waters Synapt G2 High Definition Mass Spectrometer and several ACQUITY UPLC/Xevo TQ-S Mass Spectrometer LC/MS/MS systems in support of its research.

The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a Phoenix, Arizona-based non-profit organization dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life changing results. Research at TGen is focused on helping patients with diseases such as cancer, neurological disorders and diabetes.

Waters Centers of Innovation Program recognizes and supports the efforts of scientists facilitating breakthroughs in health and life science research, food safety, environmental protection, sports medicine and many other areas.