# Multiplex Mass Spectrometric Protein Assays for Precise Monitoring of the Pathophysiology of Obesity

> **NIH NIH U01** · BATTELLE PACIFIC NORTHWEST LABORATORIES · 2022 · $743,932

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased dramatically in recent decades in both children and
adults, reaching an epidemic proportion. In order to gain new insights into the pathophysiology of obesity
towards better personalized patient care, there is a critical need to develop reliable multiplex protein assays that
can be easily implemented in clinical laboratories to enable precise monitoring of many hormones and
inflammatory markers closely associated with obesity. Unfortunately, current clinical assays often lack of
reproducibility, especially between different clinical laboratories due to the lack of assay standardization.
Targeted mass spectrometry is a promising technology for providing robust multiplex assays for blood proteins.
Therefore, the overall objective of this application is to develop and validate reproducible and transferable mass
spectrometry-based multiplex protein assays for enabling precise quantification of a panel of obesity markers.
The panel will cover multiple aspects of obesity pathophysiology, including glucose homeostasis and energy
balance (e.g., insulin, leptin, and other hormones), pro-inflammatory markers (e.g., C-reactive protein), and
anti-inflammatory markers (e.g., adiponectin). To facilitate full validation of the robustness and transferability
of the assays, an inter-lab assay validation will be pursued. Specifically, Aim 1 will be focused on initial assay
development for optimal configurations and on demonstrating confident multiplex detection of endogenous
analytes in blood plasma. Aim 2 will be centered on assay optimization and full assay characterization in the
aspects of reproducibility, stability, selectivity, linearity, and limit of quantification. Aim 3 will demonstrate the
utility of the assays through inter-lab quantification of endogenous analytes in a pilot cohort of clinical plasma
samples from normal weight and obese subjects, and obese individual before and after weight loss and
benchmarking against well-established immunoassays for selected analytes such as insulin and leptin. To
facilitate the easy- implementation of the validated assays in other laboratories, all assay data including
chromatographic data and detailed standard operating procedures will be shared through public data
repositories and assay portals. Together, the project will establish robust and easy-to-transfer multiplex assays
that will enable precise monitoring of the pathophysiology of obesity.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10448306
- **Project number:** 5U01DK124020-04
- **Recipient organization:** BATTELLE PACIFIC NORTHWEST LABORATORIES
- **Principal Investigator:** Wei-Jun Qian
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $743,932
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-20 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10448306

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10448306, Multiplex Mass Spectrometric Protein Assays for Precise Monitoring of the Pathophysiology of Obesity (5U01DK124020-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10448306. Licensed CC0.

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