BDCBiomarker Development Center

The BDC is equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation worth ca. 20 million euro comprising high-end mass spectrometers, and a bioinformatics infrastructure and has close links to clinical research groups and biobanks (e.g. via Lifelines, BBMRI and EATRIS). The BDC performs untargeted and targeted quantitative bioanalysis of proteins, peptides and metabolites, in complex samples (e.g. plasma, serum) and has cutting-edge know-how in processing and statistically analyzing highly complex, multi-variate datasets for comparative proteomics and metabolomics. The BDC is currently implementing an infrastructure for mass spectrometry imaging of small compounds and flux analysis of compounds based on stable isotope labeling and develops new bioinformatics methods for analysis of these types of data. The BDC is closely linked to genomics facilities integrating nextGeneration sequencing data in a proteo- or metabolo-genomics (Systems Medicine) approach. The BDC develops novel instrumental and bioinformatics approaches to advance the biomarker discovery pipeline all the way to clinical applications.
The BDC is staffed with 50 people (ca. 15 full-time staff members) of which 10 technicians, assuring both routine and research activities in the laboratory. We interact closely with (bio)informatics groups (e.g. TNO) for data processing and statistical data analysis combined with 'in-house' development of algorithms and software such as Threshold Avoiding Proteomics Pipeline (TAPP), MALDIViewer.