The National Cancer Institute has awarded a $1.1 million grant to Molecular Probes Inc. to develop technology that would enable researchers to perform proteomic studies of the progression, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The company will focus on developing fluorescence detection techniques that can use multiple colors, including its Sypro Ruby and Pro-Q Emerald dyes, to image the differences in the content of normal and cancerous tissue or cells. Combined with matrix-assisted laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometry, the method can help identify proteins specific to diseased and normal tissues.