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Spectradyne has developed a revolutionary instrument for measuring the concentration and size of sub-micron particles: the nCS1TM. The instrument uses a new, microfluidic implementation of the Resistive Pulse Sensing technique that is fast, easy-to-use, and practical for routine industrial use. In life science industries, the nCS1 is saving time by detecting protein aggregation earlier and enabling better research by quantifying biological nanoparticles (e.g., Exosomes) more accurately. Other application areas include nanomedicine, virology, cosmetics and non-life science industries such as paints, inks, and semiconductor processing.
Spectradyne’s Microfluidic Resistive Pulse Sensing (MRPSTM) method is an electrical technique for counting and sizing nanoparticles. As a non-optical technique, MRPS is truly orthogonal to light scattering-based methods such as Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) or Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and delivers accurate concentration measurements of nanoparticles of any material. Particles are measured one-by-one in MRPS, enabling the high-resolution analysis of complex polydisperse mixtures such as serum, urine and aggregating systems.
The nCS1 is a practical technique well-suited for routine industrial use. Analysis is performed in a disposable microfluidic cartridge and only 3 microliters of sample are required for analysis. Unlike other implementations of RPS, Spectradyne’s MRPS cartridges are optimized for nanoparticle measurements: for example, through the inclusion of embedded microfluidic features that significantly reduce clogging events and enable robust measurements at high concentration. The cartridges also save operation time - no cleaning of flow cells is required between samples, and complete sample analysis is typically achieved within a few minutes.
Key Features of Spectradyne’s nCS1:
Typical Spectradyne nCS1 Applications are:
Affinité Instruments is a spin-off of the Université de Montréal in Canada and was founded 2015. It is the producer of the portable SPR instrument P4SPR as well as the qSPR.
With the P4SPR and qSPR, the affinity and specificity of molecular interactions between two molecules can be studied easily and quickly. Additionally, it is possible to acquire information about the kinetics of these interactions with the KNX2 kinetics module.
The P4SPR distinguishes itself through its portability, flexibility and ease of use. There are two different variants available. The 2-inlet channel variant is ideal to measure a reference and a sample concurrently. In this variant, the S-shaped microfluidic cell enables an automatic and simultaneous triplicate measurement of the sample. The 4-inlet channel variant uses a microfluidic cell with 4 independent channels, enabling the measurement of 3 samples + reference at the same time. Alternatively, 4 different samples can be measured and compared simultaneously. The qSPR is always equipped with 4 inlet channels.
Both machines use the Kretschmann configuration for its sensors, meaning a thin layer (50 nm) of gold is directly coated onto a glass prism (Au sensor). Furthermore, it uses the wavelength interrogation mode with polychromatic light, in contrast to the angular interrogation with monochromatic light. Thus, Affinité Instruments SPR systems use fewer moving parts, making them highly robust, low maintenance and affordable.
For the P4SPR, the Au sensor chips and the microfluidic cells are reusable. The sensor chips are available as either bare glass prisms, or as gold coated chips with or without various surface chemistries (e.g., coated with 16-MHA, Ni-NTA, Streptavidin, or the proprietary AfficoatTM from Affinité Instruments). The qSPR is cartridge-based, combining both, sensor chip and microfluidic channels in a single cartridge.
The Affinité Instruments SPR Advantage:
Applications: