Adeptrix is creating a microarray research tool for targeted proteomics that employs both affinity enrichment of proteins with mass spectrometry for efficient and sensitive measurement of multiple biomarkers in a single experiment. The BAMS (Bead-Assisted Mass Spectrometry) tool allows biologists to quickly prepare their complex biological samples into a highly enriched form for their protein biomarkers of interest for rapid MALDI MS screening. It drastically reduces analytical time for biomarker screening and eliminates the bottleneck having to perform these types of experiments on much more sophisticated instrumentation that often requires highly trained experts to conduct the measurements. Adeptrix is just starting to market its easy-to-use sample preparation kits for life science research, which can accommodate assays that can fit up to 10,000 targets in a single experiment.
Adeptrix was founded in 2013 and joined NSIV in 2015. Its founder, Vlad Bergo, readily admits that they didn’t have a market for the microarray technology but knew that it was extremely versatile and could influence many sectors in Life Sciences and Diagnostics.
Why Is this Cool?
It allows scientists to easily probe biology and the mechanisms of biomarkers – directly measuring proteins, which are responsible for carrying out the work that they are programmed to perform from the genomic instructions of the cell. The Adeptrix tool can be used by biologists to study cell development, disease biology, drug development, or for any researcher that needs to understand the mechanism of how a particular cell responds to a external perturbation (i.e., drug, stress, environmental condition) or how a particular tissue transitions from a normal condition to a diseased state.
Meet The Team
Vladislav Bergo, CEO and Founder
Vlad is an inventor of several patents in the field of mass spectrometry-based bioassays. Originally from Russia, Vlad came to the US to complete his Ph.D. in biophysics at Boston University. Vlad appreciates the freedom of a startup to develop the technology and new capabilities and develop applications that are market driven.
Vlad vacations in many exotic locations – his next trip is to Indonesia. He’s looking forward to Indonesia’s national parks, doing some diving, and exploring the food and culture. Indonesia, he says, should be far less crowded and touristy than Thailand.
Vlad remembers experimenting, at age 7, with a microscope kit that included dyes and slides. The kit also required assembly of the microscope. It introduced him to magnification – “you could zoom in and see things”.
Sergey Mamaev, Senior Research Scientist
Sergey holds multiple degrees in biochemistry from the University of Novosibirsk. He came to the States in the 1990s to do post-doctoral work at the University of Virginia.
Sergey and Vlad met at Boston University in the Molecular Biophysics Lab. Sergey joined the Adeptrix team full-time in 2015. He’s responsible for much of the R&D bench work and supervises all the interns (who report he is a marvelous teacher).
“I like science because there’s the possibility to discover something new. You are the first in the world. It’s such a nice feeling. It’s not boring and you can feel the possibilities to create something big.”
The first science experiment Sergey remembers was growing crystals.
Sergey’s hobbies include badminton, reading, tennis, and some weight lifting. “Badminton’s a nice game. It’s more social than tennis, more forgiving of bad technique but it still requires some athletic ability and is good community of nice people.
Jeffrey Silva, Director of Product Development
Jeffrey is also an inventor of several patents in the field of mass spectrometry-based technology and applications from his work at Waters Corporation and Cell Signaling Technology. Jeffrey earned his degree in Biochemistry at Johns Hopkins University working in the area of natural product biosynthesis. He attended Harvard Medical School for his post-doctoral studying bacterial signal transduction.
Jeff Silva joined Adeptrix in 2017, after serving as a mentor for Adeptrix for the previous 2 years. Jeff has worked for both a startup as well as medium and large companies, most recently at Cell Signaling Technology in Danvers MA.
“I got hooked on proteomics while at Microbia when charged with the task of verifying microbial genetic constructs that were being engineered to overproduce important natural products for the pharmaceutical industry. Once you produce a genetic modification into a cell to express a foreign protein, you have no idea what the cell is going to do with it. We needed a bio-analytical technique that was going to help us identify that the protein was being produced and measure its abundance. Genomics was a critical step to enabling large-scale protein analysis. Advances in mass spectrometry and sample preparation methods have facilitated the integration of Proteomics in Life Science research. Adeptrix is generating a tool that enables scientists to probe many different biological pathways to help understand how proteins interact and function to maintain the normal condition of the cell and/or transform into a disease state.”
In his spare time, Jeff likes skiing, hiking and coaching lacrosse. “I played goalie for 2 years in high school. There’s nothing like standing in front of the cage and having small, really hard balls thrown at you at 80 – 100 mph, while you focus all your energy on preventing it from entering the net.”
Leave a Comment