Antibody Characterization

Elevate antibody development with Alto Digital SPR

Simplifying early candidate screening with Alto

Failing early in biotherapeutics development saves time and cost by enabling early candidate screening for binding specificity, safety, stability, and degradation. Traditional label-free techniques are often costly, complex, and slow, with high sample requirements and media compatibility issues.

Alto streamlines antibody development by simplifying epitope binning, Fc receptor binding, affinity maturation, and charge variant characterization. Its rapid assay optimization and high-quality data in complex media ensure precise binding kinetics analysis and reliable differentiation between candidates.

Failing early in biotherapeutics development saves time and cost by enabling early candidate screening for binding specificity, safety, stability, and degradation. Traditional label-free techniques are often costly, complex, and slow, with high sample requirements and media compatibility issues.

Alto streamlines antibody development by simplifying epitope binning, Fc receptor binding, affinity maturation, and charge variant characterization. Its rapid assay optimization and high-quality data in complex media ensure precise binding kinetics analysis and reliable differentiation between candidates.

Key capabilities

Epitope binning

Alto’s digital SPR rapidly differentiates overlapping epitopes with high resolution using minimal sample, identifying unique binding sites for up to 16 drug candidates.

High-throughput optimization

Analyze multiple candidates in parallel, enhancing efficiency over traditional SPR without complex operational demands.

Kinetic characterization

Obtain precise on/off rates and affinity constants for antibody-antigen and Fc receptor interactions, delivering results comparable to traditional SPR and BLI.

GxP Suite

Extend Alto’s capabilities into regulated environments, seamlessly transitioning assays from development to quality control in manufacturing.

Charge variants & stability

Assess biosimilarity, stability, and charge variant performance across acidic/basic variants, biosimilars, and stressed samples.

Alto is the best option for epitope binning up to 16 molecules

Alto enables up to 16×16 pairwise epitope binning, capturing antigens with up to 16 unique surface-coupled antibodies in a classical sandwich format. Using DMF technology, Alto automates and optimizes binning assays with just 1 µg of antigen and 100 ng of antibody, reducing complexity, cost, and effort with one-click data analysis.

Heat map of 16×16 epitope binning of anti-HA antibodies against the HA antigen, with blue indicating ‘bind’.

Alto is the best option for epitope binning up to 16 molecules

Alto enables up to 16×16 pairwise epitope binning, capturing antigens with up to 16 unique surface-coupled antibodies in a classical sandwich format. Using DMF technology, Alto automates and optimizes binning assays with just 1 µg of antigen and 100 ng of antibody, reducing complexity, cost, and effort with one-click data analysis.

Heat map of 16×16 epitope binning of anti-HA antibodies against the HA antigen, with blue indicating ‘bind’.

Alto measures high affinity interactions reliably at high throughput

Traditional SPR systems offer reliable high-affinity measurements but require extensive optimization, large sample volumes, and time-consuming workflows. These challenges are amplified in early-stage research, charge variant analysis, and stability studies where material may often be scarce. Key limitations of traditional SPR:
  • High sample requirements – Limited availability of purified proteins can be a barrier.
  • Challenges with complex matrices – Non-specific binding and matrix effects can impact data quality.
  • Low throughput & manual workflows – Sequential analysis and labor-intensive protocols slow down research.
Alto overcomes these challenges with automated workflows, 16-parallel sensor analysis, rapid assay development, and microsample efficiency – accelerating high-affinity interaction studies with minimal effort.
Single-cycle (left) and multi-cycle (right) kinetics sensorgrams for Influenza A H5N1 HA antibody MM11 binding HA antigen.
Sino Cat # KD(M) Sino Cat # KD(M) Sino Cat # KD(M)
RM08
5.53E-12
RM09
1.33E-11
RM02
1.37E-10
MM14
7.18E-12
MM04
1.35E-11
MM08
1.73E-09
MM01
1.10E-11
MM06
2.16E-11
RM06
3.11E-09
MM11
1.13E-11
RM07
6.02E-11
MM05
3.15E-09
MM03
1.22E-11
MM10
1.10E-10
RM01
6.54E-09

Alto microsampling approach is ideal for multi-attribute analysis in small sample volumes

Alto’s DMF technology miniaturizes and automates SPR, enabling real-time binding data collection from just 2 µL of sample. Unlike traditional SPR systems, Alto’s self-contained, disposable cartridges integrate all liquid handling with 16 parallel sensors, reducing hands-on time, human error, and cross-contamination. To highlight the importance of binding affinity analysis of charge variants, a study examined Mosunetuzumab and a research-grade biosimilar. Charge heterogeneity was analyzed using MauriceFlex™ (icIEF), followed by fraction collection and SPR analysis on Alto to assess CD3/CD20 binding. Alto’s low-volume, high-throughput approach provided binding data that correlated well with LC-MS structural analysis, revealing significantly weaker CD20 binding in the acidic biosimilar fraction.

Biotherapeutic charge heterogeneity analysis and charge variant fraction collection workflow with the MauriceFlex System, followed by binding analysis on the Alto System.

A comparative analysis of binding kinetics (KD) between different charge variant fractions and the CD3 epsilon and CD20 antigens. Data are shown for unfractionated, main fractions, and acidic fractions of innovator and biosimilar samples binding with each antigen.peak and unfractionated sample shower comparable binding to that of the innovator peaks.

Alto makes Fc receptor binding affinity analysis easy.

Alto’s 16 independent channels enable simultaneous multi-target analysis across various assay formats with full automation, minimizing hands-on time. Here, we demonstrate Alto’s efficiency in measuring FcγR-IgG1 binding kinetics. Its streamlined workflow reduces batch preparation efforts and accelerates biologic discovery.

Representative kinetic fits for IgG1 binding to (A) HIS-FcyRI, (B) HIS-FcyRIIA and (C) HIS-FcyRIIIA captured on Nicoya’s anti-HIS sensors using multi-cycle kinetics (MCK). The Tocilizumab analyte concentrations are shown in the figure legends. The black curve represents the Langmuir 1:1 binding fit.

Designing label-free biosensor assays for Fc receptor binding analysis: Meeting research challenges.

Choose the best option for your antibody development workflow.