Biacore scientists win best paper of 2002 from Japanese analytical chemists for writing on surface plasmon response (SPR) assays
Biacore International says that a paper published by scientists at the company's wholly owned Japanese subsidiary, Biacore KK, has been awarded the prize for best paper of 2002 in the Japanese Journal of Analytical Chemistry.
The prize will be awarded to the paper's lead author, Kazunobu Asano, at the annual meeting of the Japanese Society for Analytical Chemistry on 24 May in Kochi, Japan.
The prize-winning paper details a new in vitro screening assay to judge chemicals with hormone-like activities, known as endocrine disrupters.
Many of these have been widely used, in substances such as insecticides and as components of plastics.
However, there are still no universally accepted 'gold-standard' test methods or guidelines for detecting these chemicals.
Although work is underway to establish these, most of the test methods currently being explored are based on animal models.
Dr Setsuko Hashimoto, one of the paper's authors and director of business development at Biacore KK, explained, "As concern grows over the health and environmental risks posed by chemicals with hormone-like activities, it is imperative that we have rapid and reliable assays available to assess the endocrine disrupting activities of tens of thousands of industrial chemicals.
The assay has been developed in collaboration with National Institute of Health Science with the research grant from Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan." The authors used Biacore's SPR technology to design an assay based on the interaction between the estrogen receptor (ER) and the estrogen response element (ERE), a fragment of DNA that regulates gene expression.
In the presence of chemicals with estrogenic activity, the interaction between ER and the ERE is enhanced in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, it was possible to distinguish agonists from antagonists by the kinetic analysis of the interactions, which is a unique feature of Biacore's SPR technology.
Dr Hashimoto concluded, "We are delighted that our work has been recognised by our peers in analytical chemistry.
Our research demonstrates that the Biacore assay based on the hormone receptor mechanism can rapidly and quantitatively screen hormone-like chemicals.
It has demonstrated significant benefits over existing test methods, such as cell-based reporter assays and animal tests, which take a long time and can produce inconsistent results.
There is an urgent need for a rapid and reliable primary screening method." "Screening method of endocrine disrupting chemicals using a surface plasmon resonance sensor." Asano, K, et al.
Bunseki Kagaku, 51, 389-396 (2002).
