Blog
Educational material, comparison studies and publications on SPR and other related techniques for researchers.
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Nicoya Launches Alto™, the World’s First Digital Benchtop SPR System, to Accelerate Drug Discovery
Groundbreaking new SPR system uses digital microfluidics technology and flexible 16-channel design to reduce the time and cost of drug discovery KITCHENER, ON – January 23, 2020 – Nicoya, a leading provider of advanced analytical instruments for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, today announced the launch of Alto™ , the world’s first fully-automated, high-throughput benchtop […]
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How Preconcentration can save your Protein Samples in SPR Experiments
Your protein is precious. The more sample that you can save, the less time you need to spend on expressing and purifying proteins. This saves you money, and gives you more time to spend on other critical components of your research – like writing high-impact publications! To obtain publication-quality binding kinetics data while only using […]
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App Note: Binding Kinetics of a Virus-Like Particle using OpenSPR-XT™
Virus-like particles (VLPs) are complex molecules composed of multiple protein subunits that resemble a specific virus without its genetic material. VLPs allow researchers to safely study viruses without running the risk of exposure to a viral infection. Compared to other compounds typically used to study viruses (such as epitopes subjected to inactivation treatments), VLPs represent […]
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Meet Alto™: A Digital Microfluidics-Powered Surface Plasmon Resonance Instrument
For the first time ever, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and digital microfluidics (DMF) have come together to revolutionize biomolecular interaction analysis. Nicoya is proud to introduce Alto: the world’s first digital, high-throughput benchtop SPR system. Instead of using physical pumps, valves, and tubes, Alto precisely controls discrete nanodroplets across a grid using electricity. With DMF-powered […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]