2005 December 01
GWC Technologies establishes official distributor for Australia & New Zealand
Today GWC Technologies announced an agreement with KKI International under which KKI will serve as exclusive distributor of GWC’s SPRimager®II platform in Australia and New Zealand. Platform products include the SPRimager®II instrument, SpotReady™ chips and SPRchip™ substrates. Leading KKI’s team in Adelaide is Dr. Krasimir Vasilev, an expert in SPR systems. “It is important to GWC Technologies that our customers have access to expert technical support when they are using our products” explained Tim Burland, GWC’s President and CEO. “KKI has the depth of knowledge and customer service commitment that GWC seeks in its representatives, and we are confident that our established reputation for excellent customer support is in capable hands in Australia and New Zealand.” KKI will also serve Singapore and Malaysia on a non-exclusive basis.

2005 November 15
Detailed protocol now available for monitoring antibody-antigen interactions using the SPRimager®II
GWC Technologies today made available detailed experimental procedures for preparation of antibody arrays and for monitoring interactions of the antibodies with antigens using the SPRimager®II platform. Exemplar data obtained using antibodies and antigens provided by Pierce Biotechnology, a unit of the Fisher Biosciences group, demonstrate specificity of anti-interferon antibody for interferon gamma.

For access to detailed protocols, please contact your GWC Technologies representative or email .

2005 August 01
Both of GWC’s SPR Systems prove highly competitive in Analytical Chemistry’s SPR Product Review
Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay’s article, “Surface plasmon resonance instruments diversify”, reviews current instruments that use Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) detection for life science research applications. GWC’s SPRimager®II platform stands out for its compelling combination of value and versatility, while the FT-SPR100 system, currently marketed by Thermo Electron Corp, is the only commercially available system capable of wavelength-scanning SPR measurements. Both systems are highly competitive in price and performance compared with alternatives. The article quotes GWC’s President & CEO, Tim Burland, emphasizing the versatility of SPR detection, while GWC’s co-founding director and scientific advisor Robert Corn is quoted offering words of wisdom on surface chemistry strategies. For more information, please see the article: Anal. Chem. A-Pages; 2005; 77(15); 313A-317A.

For more information on the SPR100 module, please contact .

GWC is the emerging leader in “label-free” detection systems, which enable researchers to monitor specific molecules without the use of fluorescent labels or other tags that conventional methods use. Labels cause problems by changing the properties of the molecules that they tag. Moreover, labels are inconvenient, expensive and difficult to use, so GWC’s detection systems have multiple advantages over alternatives.

GWC Technologies’ President and CEO Timothy G. Burland said “We are very grateful for the Commerce Department’s commitment to our goals, and we are committed to implementing our plan in Wisconsin.” Under the funded project, the company plans to develop improved scientific instruments, applications and assay kits that together will form a comprehensive set of analysis tools for studying how the molecules of life interact with one another. These molecules include DNA, RNA, proteins, carbohydrates and ligands, which are chemically very different. “Conventional methods require different instruments to study the different types of molecules, whereas GWC's systems can analyze all of them”, explains GWC’s Director of Engineering Stephen C. Weibel. Understanding how these different molecules interact is key to understanding the mechanisms of life, and in turn will help to elucidate how these mechanisms change in disease, during therapy, and in different environments. Researchers who need GWC's new product platform include scientists from pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, universities, and government research facilities worldwide.

Voula Kodoyianni, Chief Scientific Officer of GWC Technologies, added “Our technology platform is extremely versatile, and has the potential to solve a broad array of problems in life science research. Remarkably, this versatile system is also easier to use than competing products. However, customers typically purchase scientific instruments to perform one or a few specific tasks, so it is important for us to develop detailed protocols and supplies that will enable customers to perform the tests they need to without investing time developing methods and sourcing materials.”

For information on available application protocols, please contact your GWC Technologies representative or email .

Current methods link proteins to chips covalently via free amine groups in the proteins. The methods work, but result in mixed molecular orientations, which leads to reduced and potentially unpredictable signals when molecular partners bind to the protein. An alternative approach uses antibodies directed against a glutathione-S-transferase (GST) segment of an engineered protein. However, free GST may be present in protein preparations, which then binds to the antibodies on the surface of the chip, lowering the surface density of protein molecules and exposing low-affinity sites to nonspecific interactions. Dr. Polans and colleagues plan to use instead proteins engineered with a streptavidin-binding peptide tag (SBP) that permits rapid and easy purification of the expressed protein and provides a tag for the immobilization of proteins on streptavidin surfaces in a defined orientation. The method is expected to improve the detection range for molecular interactions, as well as improve kinetic measurements. The protein Annexin XI will be engineered with the SBP tag, and attached to SpotReady™ chips. Annexin XI binding with the protein ALG-2 will then be analyzed. ALG-2 is required for programmed cell death, and is down-regulated in uveal melanoma, the primary malignancy originating in the eye, leading to persistent tumor cell survival. ALG-2 is thought to interact with two target proteins, Annexin XI and Alix/AIP1, in order to accomplish its role in regulating cell death. Development of the method to analyze the interaction between Annexin XI and ALG-2 on the SPRimager®II platform is expected to serve as an example of how the platform can be valuable for cancer research.

2005 May 06
GWC Technologies SPRimager®II featured in Science Magazine product Article
In the Article “Advances In : Biochips – A Chip of the Old Protein”, Peter Gwynne and Gary Heebner report on protein chip products. The article emphasizes the value of GWC’s label-free systems for proteomics research. Tim Burland, GWC’s President and CEO, points out in the article that “Our SPRimager can analyze anything. It doesn’t care about the chemistry... Even if your needs change, your analytical instrument need not.” The article also recounts the special benefits of the SPRimager®II for methods development in the area of bioarrays and surface chemistry. Read the Science Article.

2005 May 05
GWC Technologies certified as Qualified New Business Venture
GWC Technologies today announced that on behalf of Governor Jim Doyle, the State of Wisconsin Commerce Department has approved GWC’s application for certification as a Qualified New Business Venture (QNBV) under Wisconsin Act 255. Under this act, Angel and Venture Capital investors who invest in QNBVs may benefit from certain tax credits. The act is expected to benefit companies such as GWC by making early-stage equity investments more attractive to investors. Further details on Act 255 can be obtained from the State of Wisconsin Commerce Department.

2005 March 01
GWC receives SBIR funding to develop superior methods for gene expression analysis.
GWC announced today that the company has been awarded a Phase I SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop the company’s AmpliFast™ techonlogy for analysis of gene expression. Current methods rely on the use of reverse transcription, target amplification and fluorescent labelling procedures, each of which can change the relative abundance of specific mRNA targets in the samples analyzed. The AmpliFast™ method circumvents all three of these steps, utilizing linear, real-time on-chip amplification instead. “The Phase I award will enable us to establish proof of principle for this radically different approach to gene expression analysis” explained Voula Kodoyianni, PhD, GWC ‘s Chief Scientific Officer and Principal Investigator on the award. The AmpliFast™ method is based on the published research of GWC co-founder Robert M. Corn and colleagues (e.g. Goodrich et al.).

SPR (surface plasmon resonance) measurements are traditionally collected using an “angle-scanning” approach, in which measurements are taken over a range of angles of incident light of fixed wavelength. GWC’s FT-SPR technology, licensed exclusively from WARF, uses a fixed angle of incidence and instead collects measurements at multiple wavelengths in the near infra-red. The prototype instrument operates in conjunction with Thermo’s FT-IR spectrometers. Given the outstanding performance of the highly engineered FT-IR system, FT-SPR analysis has the potential to outperform angle-scanning systems in sensitivity. Given the breadth of wavelengths that can be scanned in a very short time frame, the method in practice will also exhibit far greater dynamic range than angle scanning systems.

Data supporting the extraordinarily high dynamic range included real-time monitoring of ten consecutive layers of protein adsorption events. Such performance will be valuable for monitoring multiple, consecutive binding events such as ligand-dependent protein binding and assembly of complex structures such as the transcription machinery. In separate experiments, data were obtained demonstrating the capability of the FT-SPR system for detecting small molecules binding to immobilized proteins.

The upcoming “SRP 100” system, comprising GWC’s FT-SPR detection engine and Thermo’s research grade FT-IR spectrometer, will be available soon exclusively from Thermo Electron Corp.

SPR imaging systems use Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) to detect molecular interactions on arrays without the use of fluorescent or other molecular labels. SPR arrays facilitate simultaneous analysis of multiple samples under identical conditions in real time, allowing for robust experimental controls and rigorous comparisons of experimental samples.

The special glass SpotReady™ chips are coated with a hydrophobic background, and each chip has 16 or 25 gold spots in a grid pattern for probe attachment. Each spot can be manually loaded with protein or other probes using the same pipettes employed for molecular biology and chemistry lab work. Like GWC’s gold-coated SPRchip™, SpotReady™ chip surfaces are fully accessible, so users may select whatever surface chemistry is preferred for probe immobilization. “SpotReady™ chips make proteomics research easier and faster than ever,” states Tim Burland, “and, together with the SPRimager®II, dramatically accelerate methods development for protein function anaysis.”

SpotReady™ chips are especially useful to those who are new to SPR imaging. The simplicity of use and familiar experimental approach dramatically reduce the learning curve associated with the adoption of most new technologies. And GWC’s renowned technical support stands behind every product.