BioAscent has invested in a Biacore 8k SPR System, enhancing its biophysical assay development and screening capabilities.

The new SPR system enables BioAscent to employ Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), a label free technique that allows the assessment of biomolecular interactions in real time.  It complements the exceptional biophysical assay development and screening capabilities and expertise already available at BioAscent via our existing Thermal Shift and Microscale Thermophoresis (MST) capabilities.

Alongside the introduction of the new SPR system, BioAscent has also appointed Gillian Goodwin as Senior Scientist. Gillian brings a wealth of expertise having run the SPR fragment screening at the Beatson Institute.  As well as small-molecule SPR expertise, Gillian also has considerable experience in the use of SPR to assess macromolecule (protein and antibody) binding.

Stuart McElroy, Director of Biosciences at BioAscent, commented: “The investment in this SPR machine will give us a valuable orthogonal technology to validate our clients hit compounds as well as profiling the kinetics of compounds in our hit to lead and lead optimisation programmes.  It will also give us an additional, key technique to allow us to screen our own internal fragment library for our clients

“The appointment of Gillian has further enhanced our capabilities. Gillian brings with her exceptional SPR expertise and an excellent track record and is a very welcome and valuable member of our growing team.”

For an overview of the capabilities and expertise of the BioAscent team in the use of biophysical techniques as orthogonal assays, please see the following paper: JM Rainard, G Pandarakalam, S McElroy; Using Microscale Thermophoresis to Characterize Hits from High-Throughput Screening: A European Lead Factory Perspective. SLAS DISCOVERY: Advancing Life Sciences R&D, Vol 23, Issue 3, pp. 225 – 241.