Latest Generation Acoustic Biosensors Launched in Europe

The latest addition to a line of acoustic biosensors is now available for purchase by European biotech researchers and other life scientists.

Acoustic biosensors do not require complex labeling methods; they are real-time analytical systems rather than equilibrium and can be used to investigate living cells rather than fixed cells or purified proteins. A leader in the field of acoustic biosensors, SAW Instruments GmbH (Bonn, Germany), recently unveiled the samX, the latest high-end addition to the sam range of acoustic biosensors. The samX features eight analysis channels and adaptable routing that expands the workflow options available for increased power and flexibility.

The new system uses SAW’s proven proprietary surface acoustic wave technology to detect mass binding and protein conformational changes on whole cells. Surface acoustic wave technology is based on the ability of a wave of energy to travel across the surface of a material. Each surface has a typical inherent elasticity affecting the way the energy of the wave dissipates as it travels across the surface of the material being analyzed. The technology developed and employed by SAW instruments is capable of accurately interpreting this information in order to provide real time readouts measuring binding and conformational changes in the samples through which the wave passes.

The new samX has two sensor chips for higher-end users, rather than the single chip of existing sam5 models, increasing the number of channels to eight, further facilitating the parallel processing of samples. In addition, different ligands can now be immobilized on-line at each chip position automatically, without the need for time-consuming, off-line protein loading.

Dr Markus Perpeet, managing director of SAW, said, “We are very excited to introduce users to the samX, which further extends the flexibility offered by our range of biosensors. The new system facilitates more complex assay design and can be easily adapted to meet the needs of each user, while increasing throughput speed and accuracy. It is particularly well suited to providing binding constants and kinetics data for ligands binding to membrane targets on cells, while results are obtained significantly faster than those from equilibrium-based methods.”

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SAW Instruments GmbH