Nanomedical Diagnostics to Present Field Effect Biosensing for Fragment-Based Drug Discovery at SLAS 2017
San Diego, CA (PRWEB) January 24, 2017 -- Nanomedical Diagnostics, a biotech company pioneering the development of label-free graphene biosensor assays for fragment-based screening, will showcase its proprietary Field Effect Biosensing (FEB) technology in booth 1317 at the 2017 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) conference in Washington, D.C. from Feb. 6 to Feb. 8.
Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) is increasingly used in the pharmaceutical industry as a complementary approach to traditional high-throughput screening (HTS). As opposed to HTS libraries of one-million small molecule compounds, FBDD screens can contain just 2000 low molecular weight fragments. In FBDD, researchers employ label-free biophysical techniques such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography as primary screening methodologies, but the low molecular weight of fragments and the solvents used to dissolve them can hinder accurate hit identification.
Nanomedical Diagnostics will introduce a real-time, label-free detection method that is based on electronics, providing a strong orthogonal approach for screening and hit validation. FEB excels in detecting molecules with large charge-to-mass ratios which enables sensing of compounds with no lower size limit, a considerable benefit in fragment-based screening. The non-optical technique measures the current across a field effect surface to which the target is immobilized. Any interaction or binding that occurs on the biosensor surface causes a change in conductance that is monitored in real time, providing accurate kinetic and affinity data.
“Because Field Effect Biosensing measures electrical changes instead of mass, the technology can sense in solutions such as DMSO which cause a high level of background noise on optical sensors. We have detected in 10% DMSO with no effect,” says Nanomedical Diagnostics CEO, Ross Bundy. “This provides an excellent alternate methodology for researchers who struggle to measure in complex solvents that are necessary for their candidate compounds.”
The small size of FEB technology lends to high-throughput when coupled with automatic liquid handling systems. “We estimate that a 3000-compound fragment library can be screened in one eight-hour shift on a single 96-well system,” continues Mr. Bundy. “Combined with the wide dynamic range of the platform, FEB technology can be used not only for hit identification, but also for assay development and lead optimization. The ability to use the same methodology across the drug discovery process vastly reduces assay optimization time, enabling a shorter timeline to preclinical trials.”
At SLAS2017, Nanomedical Diagnostics will showcase FEB technology with its first product, AGILE R100. For more information, visit http://www.nanomedicaldiagnostics.com.
About Nanomedical Diagnostics
Nanomedical Diagnostics (“Nanomed”) is a biotech company based in San Diego, CA. Nanomed has developed a breakthrough electronic assay based on Field Effect Biosensing (FEB) technology that provides real-time, label-free kinetic binding and affinity data. Biosensors at the heart of the assay leverage the highly sensitive nanomaterial graphene to unite biology with electronics, delivering the unique ability to sense molecules with no lower size limit in complex media such as DMSO, and use unprecedentedly small amounts of sample.
Angela Shue, Nanomedical Diagnostics, Inc., http://www.nanomedicaldiagnostics.com, +1 (858) 255-4330, [email protected]
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