ZoBio is pleased to announce that we have recently taken delivery of our fifth Biacore™ SPR instrument. Biacore 1S+ is one of the first of this newly developed platform to be delivered in Europe and will allow our Assays Group to further expand their leading breadth and depth of methods for which we are known.

Biacore 1S+ was chosen specifically for both its increased sensitivity and array of new capabilities which will enable new assays and enhance existing ones at ZoBio. Here are just a few examples of what this exciting new instrument will allow us to do for our clients:

• Increased size of proteins (complexes) – The current record at ZoBio for the largest target is a 220 kDa heterodimeric protein complex where we successfully screened our fragment library for allosteric inhibitors. With our new instrument we can screen for fragments binding up to a 300 kDa protein (complex)!
• Improved kinetic analysis – Our team has developed innovative methods to obtain mission critical information such as k_off for compounds with half-lives in the order of weeks! (J. Med. Chem. 2022, 65, 3, 1749–1766). Biacore 1S+ allows better measurements through both improved instrumental stability and enhanced sensitivity allowing us to immobilize less protein thereby reducing non-specific interactions. However, perhaps the most exciting aspect is the 4 fold increase in data acquisition rates that will allow us to begin to characterize off-rates even for fragments, something which could never previously be done.
• Protein-Biomolecule interaction analysis – Often, we work on protein-protein interaction (PPI) targets. Biacore 1S+ allows us to independently immobilize up to 5 different protein partners (often synthetic biotinylated peptides) for simultaneous interaction analysis. This allows us to characterize compounds that selectively modulate one PPI over another, for example, possible off-targets.
• Multi-component complexes – The new instrument has the capability to inject up to 5 different solutions sequentially. This capability can be extremely powerful for characterizing tertiary complexes, something we are frequently tasked with. Think for example about molecular glues or PROTACS.

Contact us and let’s see if we can help you overcome your challenges in early pre-clinical drug discovery.

Biacore is a trademark of Global Life Sciences Solutions USA LLC or an affiliate doing business as Cytiva.