MENLO PARK, Calif., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- ForteBio(R), Inc., a leading supplier of label-free technology that accelerates the development of biotherapeutic and pharmaceutical products, announced today that it has launched two next-generation instruments: the Octet RED384 for protein, peptide, small molecule and fragment screening; and the Octet QK384 for protein and antibody assays. The new instruments will debut this week at the 2009 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) National Biotechnology conference in Seattle, Washington, and will provide life science researchers with unprecedented throughput, speed, flexibility and cost-efficiency when using the company’s Octet platform.
The Octet RED384 and the Octet QK384 will enable 384-well detection, 16-channel simultaneous readout, biosensor regeneration and re-racking, and automation capabilities for biotherapeutic and pharmaceutical drug discovery assays. The new instruments will increase the cost-efficiencies of running ForteBio’s label-free Dip and Read(TM) biosensor assays in high-throughput mode, while enabling faster time-to-result for kinetic characterization and quantitation measurements.
“The Octet RED384 and Octet QK384 will deliver revolutionary efficiency improvements for life science research applications that have traditionally been conducted using ELISA or SPR-based methods,” said Christopher Silva, ForteBio’s vice president of marketing. “For example, using our new instrumentation, IgG titer determination can be completed in less than 20 minutes, as opposed to four to five hours using traditional ELISA methods. This fast time-to-result is important for bioprocess and cell line development researchers because it will enable them to monitor their bioreactors and fermentation cultures in real time. Additionally, our new label-free instruments enable researchers to perform protein kinetic screening and characterization on a 384-well plate in about two hours. These analyses have traditionally been conducted using SPR systems, which provide lower throughput and are substantially more expensive than the new Octet 384 series instruments.”
The new systems support two 384- or 96-well plate positions and enable a full complement of samples to be run in one plate, while the second plate holds buffers, diluents and controls. The system is also capable of regeneration and re-racking of biosensors. Online biosensor regeneration drives the cost per sample down while conserving valuable ligand. Re-racking of used biosensors allows for optional offline regeneration and flexible assay methods, freeing up valuable instrument time to run more assays. The Octet 384 series instruments enable competitively low running cost in the 10-20 cents range per data point for quantitation and kinetic characterization assays.
The new systems are supported by Version 6 Octet software for data acquisition and analysis, which includes significant enhancements such as a 2:1 heterogeneous ligand binding model, data tracking and processing capabilities that assist in high-throughput screening. The new systems also include hardware and software robotic integration capabilities that support automation and database connectivity and can be licensed with optional 21 CFR Part 11 compliance tools.
ForteBio’s Octet biosensors are disposable and are configured in a standard microplate format. Its biosensors simplify quantitation and kinetic characterization by eliminating throughput limitations of traditional SPR-based systems. Octet biosensors are coated with a proprietary biocompatible matrix that is uniform, non-denaturing and has minimal non-specific binding.
ForteBio also announced that the first batch of systems have been purchased by leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies after successful evaluations at customer sites.
About ForteBio, Inc.
ForteBio is a life science company that provides analytical systems to accelerate biotherapeutic drug discovery and development. These systems enable real-time, label-free analysis of biomolecular interactions, providing information on affinity, kinetics and concentration. ForteBio’s analytical capabilities enable significantly easier, faster and better characterization of drug candidates, thus providing greater value in drug development applications where existing methods have limitations in throughput, performance and cost. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with wholly owned subsidiaries in London and Shanghai. For more information, visit www.fortebio.com.
CONTACT: Gemma Milan of ForteBio, Inc., +1-650-289-6800,
gmilan@fortebio.com
Web site: http://www.fortebio.com/
