• GWC Appoints Distributor for India
• SpotReady™ Chip Patent Issued
• Epitope analysis protocol now available for the SPRimager®II
• SPRimager®II Used To Monitor Virus Assembly

2008 May 05
GWC Appoints Distributor for India
GWC Technologies announced an agreement with Biotron Healthcare (India) P. Ltd. under which Biotron Healthcare will serve as exclusive distributor for GWC’s label-free array systems in India. Previously niche products, “label-free” systems are now taking center stage in proteomics analysis, drug discovery research and diagnostics development, where they deliver special benefits over traditional detection systems. A key distinction of label-free systems is that they avoid the use of fluorescent labels that can cause experimental artefacts. Label-free analysis also allows more information to be collected about target molecules than do conventional scientific instruments.

A key distinction of GWC’s label-free systems is their flexible array format, which delivers superior throughput and greater experimental rigor than do alternative formats. Biotron Healthcare will now be able to offer GWC’s versatile label-free detection systems to researchers throughout India, delivering powerful and affordable solutions for the most rapidly growing areas of life science research. According to Tim Burland, GWC’s President & CEO, “Biotron Healthcare has a broad reach across the Indian subcontinent with eight sales offices in addition to their headquarters in Mumbai. The company is experienced in marketing, sales and support of scientific instruments, research reagents and research supplies, including several product lines complementary to GWC’s products.” “Equally important,” added Burland, “Biotron staff have both the scientific background and the technical capabilities needed to provide the standard of service and support that GWC demands of its partners. We are delighted to welcome Biotron Healthcare to GWC’s worldwide team.”

About Biotron Healthcare (India) P. Ltd: Established in 1997, Biotron Healthcare (India) P. Ltd is an experienced distributor of equipment, reagents and supplies for drug discovery, genomics, molecular diagnostics and biotechnology markets in India. The company provides technical support and equipment maintenance for users of its products in universities, testing laboratories, medical research facilities and pharmaceutical companies. The relationship with GWC will enable Biotron to expand its business throughout India. For more information, please contact info@biotronhealthcare.com.

About GWC Technologies: GWC Technologies, Inc. is based in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. GWC develops, manufactures, and markets label-free analysis systems for the drug discovery, life science research, diagnostics and materials science markets. Products are sold direct in North America, and through distributors and OEM partners elsewhere. Over 50% of GWC’s sales are exports, and the company’s products are in use in over a dozen countries.

2008 Mar 05
SpotReady™ Chip Patent Issued
GWC Technologies Inc. is pleased to announce the issuance of US Patent 7,332,329, relating to technology that GWC licenses exclusively from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the private, non-profit patenting and licensing organization of the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Using this technology, GWC has developed the “SpotReady™” line of biochips for use with the company’s scientific instruments. SpotReady™ chips allow researchers to prepare arrays of proteins and other molecules without the need for expensive and often troublesome spotting equipment typically required for other array systems. “Our customers really appreciate the convenience and value of these chips in saving them time and money”, said Voula Kodoyianni, PhD, a co-inventor and GWC’s chief scientific officer. “Moreover, SpotReady™ arrays require much less sample than do arrays made with automated spotters, facilitating analysis of samples that are very precious or in very short supply”, she added.

The SpotReady™ technology resulted from a collaboration between GWC Technologies and the laboratory of Robert Corn, a co-founder of GWC Technologies who is now a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. The SpotReady™ idea was developed when Dr. Corn was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tim Burland, GWC’s President and CEO, said that this technology is another example of the symbiotic relationship between the University of Wisconsin and local technology companies. “The strong scientific expertise along with substantial technical and manufacturing resources in our region helped us to commercialize this product within weeks of WARF filing the patent application”, he explained. “It is also tremendously helpful to have WARF as a partner in this type of project. Their intellectual property expertise is first class, and licenses to patents of this quality add significantly to the value of companies like ours”, he added.

For more information, please contact Tim Burland, President & CEO, GWC Technologies Inc., 608.441.2722.

2008 Mar 01
Epitope analysis protocol now available for the SPRimager®II
GWC Technologies is pleased to announce publication of our assay tutorial in the March 1, 2008 issue of Genetic Engineering News. The tutorial reports on three applications, including a new protocol for antibody epitope analysis using the SPRimager®II system. This label-free method allows multiple antibodies raised against the same antigen to be characterized on a single array.

The report details the method’s application to a set of mouse monoclonal antibodies, though it is readily adaptable to antibodies from any species. This approach to epitope characterization is ideal for identifying capture and detection antibody pairs for use in proteomics and biomarker discovery projects—it is a direct functional test that leaves no doubt as to the availability of the second epitope when the first epitope is already bound to antigen.

For more information about this or other applications of GWC's label-free array systems, please contact .

2008 Jan 31
GWC's Label-Free Array Platform Used To Monitor Interactions Between Viral Capsid Protein and Regulatory RNA Elements
Research describing a new method to monitor the interaction of viral capsid proteins with specific RNA sequences was recently published in the Journal of Virological Methods. Bradley Garcia and Robert Goodman used GWC’s label-free SPR imaging platform to analyze TMV capsid protein binding to nucleic acid arrays. The TMV proteins bound specifically to viral RNAs containing the Origin of Assembly Sequence (OAS).

For these experiments, Garcia and Goodman made an RNA array by first fabricating a simple DNA oligonucleotide array designed to hybridize to viral RNAs of interest. Capture of viral RNAs 1.4 to 1.5 kilobases long on the DNA array was then confirmed by monitoring hybridization of the RNA to the DNA arrays on the SPRimager®II in real time. Binding of 20S viral capsid protein aggregates to these RNA arrays was then monitored in the same experiment, and as expected, the capsid proteins bound only to the RNAs containing the OAS.

This work is important because it shows how both specificity and kinetics of the interactions between viral capsid proteins and kilobase-scale nucleic acids can be determined efficiently for multiple sequences in a single experimental analysis using the SPRimager®II system. It also illustrates once more the power and versatility of GWC’s label-free array platform for analysis of multiple types of analytes.

For more information about GWC's label-free array systems, please contact .