2006 November 01
Fourier-Transform SPR Analysis using the SPR100 Demonstrates SPR Response in Conducting Metal Oxides
Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) analysis is a well established technique in life science research for monitoring molecular interactions such as antibody-antigen recognition and protein-ligand binding. Advances in GWC’s SPR measurement systems are now leading to the increased use of SPR analysis in materials science applications.

Most SPR systems measure events on gold or silver surfaces, with glass as the supporting dielectric needed to elicit the SPR response. SPR measurement on gold surfaces is an extraordinarily versatile technique in life science, as illustrated by the broad range of life science applications proven for GWC's SPRimager®II analysis platform. As a practical matter, until now, the restriction of measurements to gold or silver surfaces limited the application of SPR analysis in materials science.

Theoretically, the SPR response can be elicited from any conducting material. In a landmark paper published in the Journal of Applied Physics, Rhodes et al. used GWC’s patented technique of Fourier-Transform SPR analysis (FT-SPR) to test whether conditions can be found under which a conducting metal oxide (CMO) elicits the SPR response. Using a modified version of the SPR100 instrument, Rhodes et al. showed for the first time that SPR measurements can be made on the CMO indium tin oxide. Moreover, the work suggests that SPR measurement will be generally applicable to CMOs, establishing the utility of FT-SPR analysis for helping to understand the properties of these complex materials. These results are expected to lead to the use of FT-SPR analysis for materials characterization in the semiconductor industry, where CMOs are routinely used in critical components.

The SPR100 system is marketed by Thermo Electron Corp. under license from GWC Technologies. For more information on the SPR100, please contact your Thermo or GWC Technologies representative or email .

2006 October 10
Timothy J. Stultz Appointed to GWC Technologies Board of Directors
GWC Technologies is pleased to announce the appointment of Timothy J. Stultz, PhD to the Board of Directors. Dr Stultz is President & CEO of Imago Scientific Instruments, a rapidly-growing nanotechnology company based in Madison, Wisconsin. According to GWC Technologies’ President & CEO Tim Burland, “Tim Stultz has over 20 years of executive management and strategic development experience in high technology and capital equipment manufacturing, including positions as founder and President of Peak Systems, Inc., President & CEO of ThauMDx, LLC, and VP GM of Veeco Instruments. We are delighted to have such a capable individual on our team to help with our business and funding strategies.” Tim Burland added that among his many accomplishments, Dr Stultz. has extensive experience in raising capital, both private and public, as well as success in several mergers and acquisitions.

GWC Technologies develops, manufactures and markets scientific instruments for researchers in pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic organizations worldwide. The company’s products serve the rapidly growing “proteomics” market segment, providing detection systems that help researchers to understand protein function.

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

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

The mAbs to be used in this work were developed by Neoclone Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of antibodies. These mAbs will be characterized using GWC’s SPRimager®II platform. According to Dr. Burgess, “The beauty of the approach… …is that it is flexible, it does not require that the mAbs be purified prior to use, and it does not require the labeling of any mAb or other protein with radioactivity or fluorescent dyes.” The ability to circumvent antibody purification stems from GWC’s demonstration that functional antibody arrays can be made on SpotReady™ chips by direct spotting of ascites fluid. This approach also serves to preserve valuable reagents since only sub-microliter volumes of ascites fluid are needed in any one experiment.

The project is made possible through an Industrial & Economic Development Research Program grant from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School to Dr. Burgess. A successful outcome of the project would provide a basis for improved diagnostic and theraputic approaches to Huntington’s disease.

For information on characterizing antibodies using the SPRimager®II platform and SpotReady™ chips, please contact your GWC Technologies representative or email .

Development of technologies for early drug absorption profiling for novel drug candidates is one of the crucial issues facing modern drug discovery. Current approaches are low-throughput and suffer from difficulties with poor reproducibility and poor compatibility with existing instrumentation. Principal Investigator Dr. Vladimir Trubetskoy, QBI’s Director of Polymer Chemistry, and GWC's Chief Scientific officer, Dr Voula Kodoyianni, plan to overcome these barriers by developing new methods based on the companies’ available products for proteomics research. This novel assay will use a mixture of amphiphilic polymers that can extract membrane proteins and lipids from natural membranes by formation of stable polymeric micelle-membrane component complexes (PM-Mem). The resulting micelles can be effectively immobilized on GWC’s SpotReady™ arrays via polymeric tethers. Each array accommodates multiple spots with biological membrane components extracted from various tissues. This technology provides significant benefits over traditional liposome sensor coatings due to the stability of PM-Mem. The project deliverable is a system for standardized profiling of the absorption characteristics of drug candidates.

2006 June 07
GWC's PCR-free, label-free, real-time amplification technology featured in leading review article
In the cover story of issue #12 of Langmuir volume 22, Hye Jin Lee, Alastair W. Wark, and Robert M. Corn highlight the features of GWC’s AmpliFast™ technology for detection of nucleic acid targets. Invented in Dr. Corn’s laboratory, the array-based technology has proven both specific and sensitive for detection of DNA targets. DNA complementary to RNA probes on the array leads to specific degradation of the RNA probes when the enzyme RNase H is added. Loss of RNA probe from the surface is monitored in real time on GWC’s label-free SPRimager®II system. Since the target DNA survives the enzymatic reaction, it is free to hybridize to another RNA probe, leading to further probe loss and higher signals. Amplification of the signal in this way is at least 12,000-fold. This surface enzyme reaction has been thoroughly characterized by Corn and colleagues, and is now established as a robust, quantitative, real-time method for nucleic acid detection. The method also forms the basis of GWC’s proprietary label-free, PCR-free, reverse-transcription-free gene expression analysis technology.

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

For advice on protein array fabrication for the SPRimager®II platform, please contact your GWC Technologies representative or email .

2006 April 14
GWC Technologies array system featured in Science Magazine product Article
In the Article “Proteomics - Interacting Instruments”, Mike May and Gary Heebner report on products used in protein analysis. The article recounts the versatility of GWC’s SPRimager®II platform and SpotReady™ chips for proteomics research. Read the Science Article.

For AmpliFast™ sublicensing opportunities please contact .

2006 April 11
GWC Technologies presents SPRimager®II array platform at BIO2006 conference in Chicago
Tim Burland, GWC’s President and CEO, today presented the company’s label-free SPRimager®II array platform to attendees at the BIO2006 conference in Chicago. The presentation emphasized the unmatched combination of versatility and affordability of the platform, and detailed its effectiveness for analysis of antibody-antigen interaction, cell receptor profiling, and drug absorption modelling.

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