Stopped-flow spectrometer, used for tracking fast reactions in chemical and life sciences, such as protein folding, in real time, makes transition from development to industry
World-class instrumentation developed for bioscience research at CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory is at the heart of a new commercial instrument launched at International Biotech in November 2003. The transfer of this novel design to the commercial sector means that university teaching staff, as well as industrial bioscientists, now have access to high-performance monitoring of fast biochemical reactions, at comparatively low cost.
The new instrument is a stopped-flow spectrometer, used for tracking fast reactions in chemical and life sciences, such as protein folding, in real time.
Its key component, a flow cell where the reactants are mixed, is a miniaturised version of a unique cell developed for the same application on the high intensity synchrotron light source at CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory.
The quality and cost of stopped-flow spectrometers increases with a decrease in the 'dead time' between initial mixing of the reactants and the point at which they react.
The new spectrometer has a dead time of three milliseconds, comparable to the 1-10 milliseconds commonly found in other commercial spectrometers.
However, the exclusive Daresbury-designed flow cell is cheaper to produce than traditional flow cells.
"The design is simpler and more robust.
"The instrument is a spin-off from cutting edge research using national facilities that can be used by undergraduates in chemistry and life sciences.
"The idea is to stimulate and encourage our next generation of scientists," explained Professor Gareth Jones, head of life sciences at Daresbury and joint holder with David Clarke of a recently awarded European patent on the design of the flow cell. The launch of the new fast reaction kinetics instrument is the culmination of a successful four-year collaboration between Jenway and CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory through its subsidiary company, Clik (Central Laboratory Innovation and Knowledge Transfer).
"This spectrophotometer is the result of a successful collaboration and technology transfer which utilises the particular expertise of both parties - it has extended the range of Jenway spectrophotometers to address the specific needs of a fast-growing and significant sphere of research", commented Jenway.
An ongoing programme of knowledge transfer aims to deliver further reductions in dead time and there are plans to develop further instrumentation for fluorescence labelling of biological species.
