A new Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) system from Sartorius is addressing many of the persistent challenges associated with characterizing biomolecular interactions for applications like drug discovery, quality control, and process development.
The innovative engineering design of the Octet® SF3 supports high-throughput and low-maintenance characterization with low baseline noise and drift, while intuitive software for assay setup and data analysis allows both frequent and infrequent SPR users to tackle any characterization challenge. Over 72 hours of unattended run time is possible, and state-of-the-art fluidics and optimized electronic designs minimize downtime by significantly reducing maintenance time as well as the potential for instrument failure and blockages.
But it is the diverse range of injection types, covering all research applications, that makes the system truly unique and invaluable for the practical and varied demands of bioanalytic labs. The novel OneStep® Injection Technology eliminates the need to prepare multiple dilution series, allowing users to create a concentration gradient of at least three orders of magnitude for kinetics and affinity analysis—all while prepping only a single analyte solution. At the same time, exceptional sensitivity for both small and large molecules and low baseline noise and drive ensure robust results. The Sartorius NeXtStep™ Injection Technology is intended for competition assays; users can determine an analyte’s full kinetics and affinity in the presence of multiple competitors from a single analyte concentration.
And while these novel injection technologies allow users to generate high-quality kinetics and affinity data in a fraction of the time compared to multi-cycle kinetics (MCK), this industry standard approach is also compatible with the Octet® SF3 SPR instrument. Head-to-head in analyzing five different Trastuzamab dilutions, the use of a single analyte concentration using OneStep® Gradient Injections vs. those generated using a serial dilution multi-cycle kinetic assay produced similar results. However, significant time, cost, and labor savings were achieved with the Octet® SF3, and recovery of samples for further analysis can decrease workflow times even more.
Applications of the Octet® SF3 SPR system range from screening, fragment-based drug discovery, cell-line development, biomolecular interaction analysis, quality control and manufacturing, vaccine research, process development, and bioprocessing. “All compounds can behave differently depending on specific stress conditions,” says Darius Wilson, Product Manager, BioAnalytics Workflows, at Sartorius. “It is therefore crucial that any SPR platform has the ability to accurately assess these differences in the least complex and time-consuming manner possible—something which the Octet® SF3 can do with consummate ease.”