SAW Instruments has completed the North American launch of SamX, the latest in its range of acoustic biosensors to exploit surface acoustic wave (Saw) technology. SamX has eight analysis channels and an adaptable microfluidic layout to enhance studies of real-time kinetics on the surfaces of live mammal cells. Saw technology can detect mass binding events as well as protein conformational changes, and does not require fluorescent labelling, and is said to provide analyses in only a few minutes.
Saw Instruments SamX acoustic biosensor offers eight analysis channels
SamX has two sensor chips (the previous Sam5 model had only one), and thereby offers a total of eight analysis channels. The microfluidic circuitry can be configured to allow eight independent channels or with channels paired, four-plexed, or eight-plexed. This versatility enhances laboratory workflow, says Saw Instruments, and allows reagents to be delivered to specific sensor chip positions. Different ligands can be automatically immobilised at each chip position, without off-line protein loading.
Markus Perpeet, managing director of Saw Instruments, said: “SamX opens up new potential applications for biosensors, way beyond what was previously possible with SPR [surface plasmon resonance]. It facilitates complex assay design and can be adapted to meet the needs of the user, with increased throughput speed and accuracy. It is particularly well suited to measuring binding constants and kinetics for proteins on whole mammalian cells”.
The US launch of SamX took place at at the IBC Antibody Engineering and Antibody Therapeutics (AEAT) meeting in San Diego, USA, in thee first week of December 2011. The product was first unveiled for the European market at MipTec in September 2011, and is now available worldwide.