Wako Pure Chemical Industires announced that they will promote the Phos-tag series of products in Indian market via Mumbai-based Yasham Life Sciences. Phos-tag is a novel phosphate-binding tag at neutral pH (physiological pH), developed by the Department of Functional Molecular Science at Hiroshima University, Japan. It is used for the separation, purification, and detection of phosphorylated substances. The Phos-tag series is manufactured by the NARD Institute, and MANAC, Japan. In May 2010 Wako had taken over the distribution of Phos-tag products from the manufacturers.

Protein phosphorylation is one of the most important post-translational modifications. Organisms utilize this reversible reaction of proteins to control many cellular activities, including signal transduction, apoptosis, gene expression, cell cycle progression, cytoskeletal regulation, and energy metabolism. Abnormal protein phosphorylation is related to carcinogenesis and neuropathogenesis. Methods for monitoring the phosphorylation status of proteins (i.e., phosphoproteomics) are, thus, very important with respect to the evaluation of diverse biological and pathological processes.

The Phos-tag line of products are used in the recognition of all phosphorylated forms of serine/threonine/tyrosine and do not require radioisotope labeling. Downstream applications followed by mass analysis are also applicable.

The Phos-tag line of products include Phos-tag acrylamide; for the specific separation of phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated proteins by SDS-PAGE, Phos-tag Biotin; for phosphate affinity western blotting, Phos-tag agarose; for phosphate affinity chromatography purification, enrichment and separation of phosphorylated proteins using column chromatography, and Phos-tag mass analytical kit for MALDI-TOF/MS analysis along with and SuperSep Phos-tag, which is a precast gel added with Phos-tag acrylamide in advance and can be used immediately after opening the package.

Wako Pure Chemical Industries has been engaged in the development and manufacture of high-quality products such as over 35,000 unique antibodies, enzymes, molecular biology kits, organic/inorganic chemicals and analytical standards.