SCIENION and Innopsys Collaborate to Offer Products for Reverse Phase Protein Arrays

SCIENION AG and France-based Innopsys, a manufacturer of high resolution microarray scanners, today announced a cooperation agreement on a seamless integration of its microarray production and detection equipment.

Combining technologies of both companies will benefit our customers for a broad range of applications. A good example is “reverse phase protein array” (RPPA). RPPA is a high-throughput antibody-based technique developed for functional proteomics studies to evaluate protein activities in biological networks. This is useful in identifying drug selectivity, classifying tumors, predicting responses to target therapies, and many more. Lysates from cultured cells or patient tissue samples are typically deposited and incubated on nitrocellulose membranes. Scienion’s sciFLEXARRAYER technology can precisely and gently print lysates on nitrocellulose coated glass slides without damage to the surface. Innopsys InnoScan® 710-IR near infrared scanner is the only product that allows for an IR detection readout of these arrays. It combines a 3µm per pixel resolution with 670 nm and 785 nm excitation lasers, a spectral range where the auto-fluorescence of nitrocellulose that is typically present in the visible range is significantly decreased. This product combination will significantly improve signal to noise ratios. Systems will be offered as full out-of-the-box solutions, where equipment and software have been configured to execute RPPA assays from A to Z. This will lower the barrier of entry, allowing more researchers to experiment with RPPA.

Dr. Holger Eickhoff, CEO of SCIENION AG, states: “We are very pleased to offer a complete solution that integrates Innopsys’ high resolution scanners, especially its unique IR detection devices. The InnoScan® products complement our own colorimetric scanner sciREADER CL. Our customers will benefit from combining state-of-the-art printing and detection technologies of both companies, including full configuration and software integration, enabling advance performance and automation for such multiplex assays.”

Dr. Laurence BOUET, Executive and Sales Director of INNOPSYS, comments: “Scienion and Innopsys focus on top quality and high performance products and we target the same clientele. I view our initial collaboration as an ideal match of partners. We appreciate this new cooperation as a promising opportunity to scale up outreach and we look forward to identify further areas for joint activities.”