Thanks to the ITACA.SB project: “Potentiating the ITAlian CApacity for Structural Biology Services in Instruct Eric” (itaca-sb.it) funded by the European Union NextGenerationEU, the Biocrystal Facility has been implemented with advanced instruments to improve the biophysical characterization of proteins and their interactions.
Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) is a label-free, real-time detection technology for the biophysical characterization of the proteins and their interactions.
Thanks to funding form the ITACA.SB project (“Potentiating the ITAlian CApacity for Structural Biology Services in Instruct Eric”) project, funded by the European Union NextGenerationEU), in the Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology (IBPM) in Rome, an Octet SF3 System from Sartorius has been acquired.
The Octet SF3 System from Sartorius is a fully automated SPR-based biosensing system providing high quality kinetics and affinity measurements, with high assay sensitivity for both small and large molecules. With the low baseline noise and drift, large injection volumes and the novel OneStep® and NeXtStep™ Gradient Injection Technologies, the Octet SF3 allows users to generate high-quality kinetics and affinity data in a fraction of the time compared to standard multi-cycle kinetics SPR experiments.
SPR is based on ligand and analyte binding to chemically coated sensor chips. SPR sensor chips are comprised of a thin glass slide coated with a semi-transparent gold film, protected by a rigid plastic outer cassette to shield the gold surface from direct handling. The gold surface of many Octet SPR sensor chips are coated with an additional layer of carboxymethylated dextran which allows covalent modification of the surface using a range of chemistries, including amine and thiol. This allows the user to immobilize and study a wide variety of molecules such as proteins, antibodies, nucleic acids and small molecules, to generate kinetic, affinity, concentration and binding specificity data in real-time.
Key advantages of the Octet SF3 System include:
Mass photometry, an analytical technology for biomolecular characterization, measures the mass of single particles in solution. The principle behind mass photometry is simple: a single molecule in contact with a measurement surface (e.g. a coverslip), exposed to a beam of light, produces a small but measurable light scattering signal, which is directly proportional to the molecule’s mass.
The mass-photometric apparatus (TwoMP, Refeyn) coming soon at IBPM-CNR (Biocrystal Facility), thanks to funding form the ITACA-SB project, offers to the Italian scientific community the opportunity to perform a biophysical characterization of the biological macromolecules and in particular to:
One of the main advantages of this technique is that it requires very little sample: 10 µL in a concentration range of 100 pM – 100 nM. The low concentration range allows to study the biological macromolecule at a physiologically relevant concentrations, helping to mimic the intracellular environment and observe native behavior. Mass photometry measurements are performed in solution and are compatible with water as well as a wide range of buffers. Moreover, mass photometry does not require any labelling of the molecules under investigation, simplifying sample preparation and eliminating the risk of labels interfering with the native behavior of a molecule being analyzed. Mass photometry workflows are very quick, with both sample preparation and measurement together often taking just minutes. It is possible also to use this technique to capture the dynamic behavior of biomolecules.
Please fill the Request Form attached below and send it to info@biocrystalfacility.it
