The Ozone Group today announced the launch of India's first Protein Sequencer, a breakthrough technology in protein science leading to advances in drug development. The protein sequencer is developed under the Ozone Research Frontier in the US, the R&D division of the Ozone group.

As presence or absence of proteins in the human body is the reason for disease occurrence, the study of protein structure and function through the protein sequencer can lead to the development of drugs and treatments for numerous disorders.

A protein sequencer is an instrument that is used to determine the sequence of amino acids in a protein. It works by tagging and removing one amino acid at a time, which is analyzed and identified. This is repetitively done for the whole protein, until the whole sequence is established.

The worldwide market for Protein Sequencer is around 20 billion US $ and Indian market is about Rs.50-70 crore.

Explaining the rationale behind the development of this machine, Mr. S.C. Sehgal, Chairman & MD, The Ozone Group said, "It gives us a great honor to introduce this breakthrough technology of Protein sequencing in India. At Ozone, research and development has been the cornerstone of our business strategy and today we are putting an entirely new concept on the technological map of India, Protein Sequencer is an innovative instrument which will accelerate advances in discovery of drugs thereby increasing longevity of life"

The team working on this project at Ozone Research Frontier was headed by Dr. Bakshy Chibber, Research Associate Professor in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame. Prof Chibber worked on the concept of the protein sequencing in New Delhi for one year in 2006, after that he returned back to US where he worked closely with Mike Shields, President, Ozone Research and his team to develop the first functional prototype.

According to Dr. Bakshy Chibber, "The methodology of the new protein sequencer is based on new patented chemistry. The machine developed by the Ozone Research Frontier is 60 times more efficient then present machines as it can identify 12 protein sequences in 10 minutes. We hope that the efficiency of the machine will prove to be beneficial for drug development and diagnostics"