The present invention relates to the identification and use of markers indicative for the response of a subject to immunotherapy as anti-cancer treatment. The markers are particularly useful in predicting response of a subject to immunotherapy with PD-1 or PD-L1 antagonists in the treatment of cancer. PD-1 and PD-L1 antagonists are typically used as immunotherapy in the treatment of several types of cancer, including melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and squamous cell carcinoma.

A method of predicting whether an MDS patient has a good or poor prognosis uses a general purpose computer configured as a classifier and mass-spectrometry data obtained from a blood-based sample. The classifier assigns a classification label of either Early or Late (or the equivalent) to the patient's sample. Patients classified as Early are predicted to have a poor prognosis or worse survival whereas those patients classified as Late are predicted to have a relatively better prognosis and longer survival time. The groupings demonstrated a large effect size between groups in Kaplan-Meier analysis of survival. Most importantly, while the classifications generated were correlated with other prognostic factors, such as IPSS score and genetic category, multivariate and subgroup analysis showed that they had significant independent prognostic power complementary to the existing prognostic factors.

A method of analysis using mass spectrometry and/or ion mobility spectrometry is disclosed comprising: (a) using a first device to generate smoke, aerosol or vapour from a target in vitro or ex vivo cell population; (b) mass analysing and/or ion mobility analysing said smoke, aerosol or vapour, or ions derived therefrom, in order to obtain spectrometric data; and (c) analysing said spectrometric data in order to identify and/or characterise said target cell population or one or more cells and/or compounds present in said target cell population.

In a system for affinity selection by mass spectrometry, wherein a plurality of drug candidates in solution are separated based on affinity, a method is provided comprising introducing a solid-phase device having binding affinity for a selected protein into the solution, binding at least one of the plurality of drug candidates to the solid-phase device as a selected drug candidate, washing the solid-phase device and selected drug candidate to separate unbound material, sampling the selected drug candidate in capture fluid flowing through a sampling region of an open port sampling interface and directing the sampled selected drug candidate and capture fluid to an ionization source.

Methods for analysis of a glucuronide ligand-drug conjugate are provided.

An object of the invention is to provide a method for detecting pancreatic cancer and a reagent that can be used for the method. The method is a method for detecting pancreatic cancer, characterized by comprising measuring the amount of TFPI2 in a body fluid collected from a subject. In addition, an antibody that specifically recognizes the TFPI2 processing polypeptide and intact TFPI2 is included in the reagent for detecting pancreatic cancer.

The invention provides a method for detecting one or more analytes, the method comprising: providing a substrate comprising a semiconductor with a porous surface, wherein the porous surface is coated with a fluorocarbon polymeric coating; contacting the porous surface with a fluid or object so that the one or more analytes are retained on the substrate when present in the fluid or on the object; and analysing the substrate by mass spectrometry to detect the one or more analytes if present on the substrate.

Site-specific modifications of proteins are desirable in biotechnological applications such as biopharmaceuticals, immunotherapy, vaccines, and are useful in chemical biology. Gluconoylation is a non-enzymatic, covalent, post-translational modification commonly observed on N-terminal His-Tags bearing proteins. We synthesized glucono-1,5-lactone derivatives, including azido variants for selective acylation. High yield acylation is achieved by simply mixing derivatives with target protein amidst diverse conditions of temperatures, aqueous buffers, excipients, or complex cell lysate.

One mode is a method for the structural analysis of an organic compound by MALDI mass spectrometry, including: a sample preparation process (S1) which includes preparing a sample by mixing a specimen containing an organic compound to be analyzed with a predetermined matrix at a mixture ratio within a range from 1:5 to 1:5000 in molar ratio; a mass spectrometry process (S3) which includes irradiating the prepared sample with a laser beam having a spot size equal to or smaller than 15 μm to generate ions originating from a component of the specimen in the sample, and performing a mass spectrometric analysis of the generated ions; and an analyzing process (S4) which includes detecting, from a mass spectrum acquired in the mass spectrometry process, ions including product ions resulting from in-source decay, and estimating the structure of the organic compound to be analyzed based on information concerning the ions.

A method for assessing drug-resistant microorganism includes the following steps. A model establishing step is performed so as to obtain an antibiotic resistance assessing classifier. A test sample is provided. A sample pre-processing step is performed so as to obtain a processed sample. An analysis step is performed so as to obtain a target mass spectrum data. A spectrum pre-processing step is performed so as to obtain a normalized target mass spectrum data. A feature extraction step is performed so as to obtain a spectrum feature. An assessing step is performed, wherein the spectrum feature is analyzed by the antibiotic resistance assessing classifier so as to output an assessed result of drug-resistant microorganism, and the assessed result of drug-resistant microorganism is for assessing whether the test microorganism is a drug-resistant microorganism or not.