The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued its first-ever reference material designed to improve the performance and reliability of experiments to measure the masses and concentrations of peptides in biomolecular samples. The new reference material is expected to be an important tool in the analysis of proteins, both for disease diagnosis and drug discovery.
The need for the reference material has been long recognized by the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF), a non-profit standards organization created by representatives from industry firms, universities, and government agencies. In collaboration with NIST, the ABRF created a Peptide Standards Project Committee to design and characterize three synthetic peptides to serve as the basis for a NIST peptide reference material.
