Blog
Educational material, comparison studies and publications on SPR and other related techniques for researchers.
-
App Note: Binding Kinetics of an Antibody Serum Sample Using OpenSPR™
You asked. We answered. Our team at Nicoya speaks with hundreds of researchers every week. We regularly hear that researchers want to perform kinetic analysis of analytes in crude samples. More specifically, when performing screening studies, the ability to quantify antibody-antigen binding in animal sera would be incredibly valuable in situations where antibody purification is […]
-
Nicoya Raises $10 Million in Series A Funding to Make Drug Discovery Digital
KITCHENER, ON – January 14, 2020 – Nicoya, a leading provider of advanced analytical instruments for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, announced today that it has raised $10 million in Series A financing. The funding round was led by Whitecap Venture Partners with participation from existing investors, including Garage Capital, MaRS IAF, Laurier Startup Fund, […]
-
Comparison: Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) vs. Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging (SPRi)
In competitive areas of biomedical research, such as drug discovery and vaccine development, choosing the right technique for your research needs could save you valuable time and resources. For Instance, ELISAs can confirm the binding of a large number of interactions. This makes this technique an ideal choice for high-throughput drug target screening.1 However, ELISAs […]
-
Case Study: The Importance of Binding Kinetics in Drug Discovery
Drug discovery is a critical and complex area of research. Rigorous testing, crucial safety considerations, and exhaustive data are all required for a drug candidate to progress into clinical trials. However, it is through this process that life-saving drugs such as Gleevec (a treatment for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia with an incredible success rate) and Serelaxin […]
-
New Publication – OpenSPR™ Binding Data Reveals Novel Mechanisms of Alzheimer’s Disease
Over 50 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) or another form of dementia, according to the World Alzheimer Report 2018 (Patterson, 2018). This totals an estimated $1 Trillion USD in cost of care. It is no surprise that AD is a significant area of research today as scientists hope to find […]
-
Technical Guide: Epitope Mapping Techniques
Whether you’re developing a novel vaccine or designing antibody therapeutics, chances are you have used several epitope mapping techniques to learn more about how your antibodies are behaving. However, this crucial step in many research applications often comes with complications when working with challenging proteins, such as those with non-linear binding regions. An ELISA has […]
-
Technical Guide: Conducting In Vitro Assays with Transmembrane Proteins
Transmembrane proteins account for approximately 50% of the total mass in a lipid bilayer and serve as front line communicators and transporters. Transmembrane proteins (TMPs) are integral membrane proteins permanently attached to a biological membrane. TMPs typically contain three major regions – an extracellular domain, membrane domain and an intracellular domain. Although TMPs are prevalent […]
-
Publication – OpenSPR Binding Data Reveals a Novel Approach to Treat Chronic Itch
Chronic itch associated diseases such as eczema and psoriasis will affect over 20% of human beings during their lifetime (Adikaram et al., 2019). And yet, there are surprisingly few anti-chronic itch drugs available. Those that do exist usually come with unwanted side effects such as somnolence, weight gain and gastrointestinal symptoms (Yosipovitch, Rosen, and Hashimoto, […]
-
Cut Your Lab Instrument Downtime to 0 Using OpenSPR™
Having the right tools is essential for any profession. A chef cannot cook without knives, and a carpenter cannot build without a hammer. The same is also true for scientific researchers. Having the correct lab instrumentation to perform your experiments is key to publishing, and replacing or fixing these tools is not easy. Instruments tend […]
-
How to Write a Successful Grant Proposal
You’re passionate about your research. Your work is crucial for scientific discovery and deserves to be carried out. We know that, and we love what you’re doing. So why can it be so challenging for academic researchers to obtain research funding? At Nicoya, we speak with researchers all over the world. We hear the same […]