Proteomics is a rapidly expanding field of research into how proteins encoded in genes work.
It is an area of study made possible only now that scientists have identified the more than 30,000 genes in the human genome. The Penn researchers believe their new tool is better than any other method now available. They are very time-consuming and not very efficient. What the Penn researchers have developed is a system that combines the ability of antibodies to detect specific molecules along with the amplification properties of an enzyme called T7 RNA polymerase. IDAT was developed by Zhang and his Penn pathology and laboratory medicine department colleagues Dr. Mark I. Greene, Janet Estee Kacharmina and Kevin Miyashiro, along with Dr. James Eberwine of Penn's departments of pharmacology and psychiatry.