Ultra low cost SPR?

[Ryan Denomme]

Are people interested in a very low cost surface plasmon resonance tool for biomolecular interaction analysis? Is there a need to develop a low cost tool that any lab/researcher could afford? 

Think OpenPCR but for SPR.

Thoughts?

Ryan

[Mathieu H]

Hi Ryan.
I am interested in that.
I believe we could try and use microstructured, thin plastics on top of a low-cost prism. We etch plastics with low-cost lasers. Then recycle a printer stepper motor and program it. Finally I need to check but the sensor shouldn't be expensive either and interface it with a computer is cheap and easy.
We are going to try sometime this semester I think. I can let you know how it goes.

[Ryan Denomme]

Those sound like some good ideas - would you evaporate gold on top of the etched plastic? 

We have already started building an SPR-like system that is quite affordable and has shown good performance so far. We are trying to see what level of interest there is in a product like that from a commercial point of view. So we are looking at academic researchers, DIY bio hackers, small biotech firms, etc. If you have a couple of minutes, filing out our research survey would be really helpful: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/openSPR

[Mathieu Hautefeuille]

Hi Ryan.
How much does your system cost? I have a little bit of money left from a small project at the moment.
Regards

--Mathieu

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[Ryan Denomme]

Hi Mathieu,

We haven't finalized the pricing yet, but we can discuss what would fit in your price range and give you a good discount as we are looking for beta testers now. Can you email me directly at rden...@nicoyalife.com?

Thanks!

Ryan

[Josiah Zayner]

What is the price as this post was started by you proclaiming very low cost.(ultra?)
Does that mean $50k? $10k? $1k? $100?

If you have a way to create super cheap gold chips that contain different conjugates to allow proteins and other things to attach to them I applaud you. What different conjugates do you have available? How much are you selling these chips for?
What is the binding capacity of these chips? What is the size detection limit of your SPR? Have you compared it to commercial systems?
What types of molecules have you tested? How do your numbers compare to published data?
Do you have any data available for us to see?

Have you developed software for the system? Is it open source?

Thanks,
     Josiah

[Nathan McCorkle]

how does it compare to this:
http://www.google.com/patents/US20130100454
?

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[Ryan Denomme]

Hi Josiah,

These are some really great questions, thank you! When we talk about "low cost", we are talking about the SPR system being in the $5000-$10,000 price range, with sensor costs being in the range of $5-$10. The system we have built now fits within these specifications. However, our ultimate goal in the long term (2-3 years from now) is to get to a system cost of below $1000 with a per test cost of less than $1.

In terms of our sensor chips, we are planning to offer them unconjugated to start off, so just plain gold on the surface. Note that our technology does not require/use a dextran layer like other SPR systems so it is relatively straight forward to conjugate and we will be providing our recommended protocols for this. We hope to be ready to release examples of data generated from our system in the next 2 weeks, which is also when we are planning to make the system available to Beta testers. Because we are such a small team, we are relying on Beta testers to help us generate more test and comparison data and more widely validate the system across many different applications. We have tested the system using 3 different targets ranging from 10kDa-70kDa, and with 3 different capture probes including antibodies, aptamers, and small molecules.

The software for the system is for data acquisition and control. We have not included built in kinetic analysis yet so at the beginning we will be recommending users to the freely available tools for doing this. In terms of making the software open source, we are seriously considering this to help speed the development of new features and functions. 

We are planning on releasing more information on the system very soon so I will keep you informed when that happens. 

Ryan

[The Brainery]

I realize this conversation is four years old, but wanted to add some thoughts:

I've been working on a few side projects that I think could come together to make an affordable Open Source (L)SPR system:

1. An electrospray (for depositing gold nanoparticles) based off of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vvaH8qh-pE

2. A Digital Magnetofluidics platform for fluid handling (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvYls7hAnI)

3. An electromagnet with laser diode in the centre. (As the electromagnets are the equivalent to my "Fluxels" in digital biology devices) 

For this to work I've made a couple assumptions:

1. That Electrospray is sufficient for gold nanoparticle deposition in LSPR applications

2. That I can deposit the particles on top of a hydrophobic coating

When placed over a hydrophobic surface, the iron forms a ring around the droplets in the shape of the electromagnet, leaving the centre transparent, so there shouldn't be any problem with the particles blocking the diodes or binding with the nanoparticles.

If this works, there are a few additional benefits then just cheap gold coated flow cells: Each electromagnet can have a different functionalized gold particle, making it ideal for proteomics applications.

I would love to hear people's thoughts, and if this is something worth pursuing.

Here are some videos regarding Digital Magnetofluidics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvYls7hAnI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1edy-7Ai2A

Thanks!

Lucas (The Brainery)