San Diego, California, April 12, 2011 -- Silicon Kinetics Inc., the innovative life sciences tool company which introduced the world’s first 3D biosensor surface for label-free interaction analysis announced lead customers adopting the Company’s AC-MS (affinity capture - mass spec) application with SKi Pro™ instruments.
“Silicon Kinetics 3D biosensor chips have a 60x advantage in surface area vs. planar biosensors, hence allow capturing sufficient amounts of small molecules or proteins for subsequent identification by a mass spectrometer,” said Hus Tigli, Chairman and CEO of Silicon Kinetics. “For years, others have been trying to combine other label-free techniques with MS but have not been able to capture enough material for proper identification. Together with key academic and industrial partners, Silicon Kinetics has made that possible, as evidenced by recent acquisitions of SKi Pro instruments by major biotech and pharmaceutical companies for AC-MS.”
In AC-MS with SKi Pro, only the molecules with the desired binding/release profiles are eluted directly into a mass spectrometer, through a fluidic interface called SKi Bridge. Injections and buffer exchanges are all in-line. “SKi Bridge is designed to work with all LC-MS setups, including UPLC-MS,” said John Ervin, PhD, Director of R&D and Engineering. AC-MS combines the sensitivity of label-free interaction analysis with the information richness of mass spectroscopy, in a fully on-line system for applications including drug discovery and toxicology.”
The technology making affinity-capture possible on 3D silicon surface is NPOI, or nano-pore optical interferometry.
About Silicon Kinetics
Silicon Kinetics, Inc. is a privately-held life sciences tools company headquartered in San Diego, California. The Company specializes in instruments for optical interferometry in nano-porous silicon biochips. The SKi Pro™ instrument platform and the 3D SKi Sensor™ biochips are used to detect protein-protein, protein-drug, or protein-DNA interactions in real-time and quantify binding kinetics, dissociation rates, or biomolecular affinity rankings, required for the study of disease pathways and the development and manufacturing of therapeutics. More information can be found at http://www.siliconkinetics.com
Technical contact:
Sergei Bibikov, PhD
Silicon Kinetics Inc.
(858) 437-2305
sbibikov@siliconkinetics.com
