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LABION Surface Plasmon Resonance imaging (SPRi)

The Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Clinical Biophotonics (LABION) in Milan (Italy) uses the iFOUR to accurately dispense pico/nanoliter drops of ligands onto Surface Plasmon Resonance imaging (SPRi) custom-specific substrates with high precision and frequency.

For the NEVERMIND project, LABION is using the system for the preparation of the microarrays on the SPRi biochip where ligands are receptors and the specific targets of drugs, in order to verify the binding kinetic of the liposomes with each identified receptor and to evaluate the interactions and the integrity of the encapsulated drugs to corresponding targets.

Moreover, LABION takes advantage of the properties of the iFOUR system for the preparation of SPRi microarrays used for the analysis of extracellular vesicles. The research projects currently ongoing at LABION in this field are focused on the detection and characterization of multiple populations of circulating extracellular vesicles as biomarkers of neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases. Ligands of the SPRi microarrays are antibodies selected for the specific detection of vesicles coming from neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, microglia and endothelial cells, in order to compare their levels in samples from healthy subjects and patients in different disease stages.

The iFOUR system at LABION is equipped with the humidity and temperature controller, the wash station with pumps and bottles, controller of pressure/vacuum and a single degasser syringe pump for improved micro-dispensing performance.

Furthermore, the iFOUR system has a dual camera system: a droplet control camera for the optimization of features of the drops dispensing, and an additional overhead digital camera with magnification optics (target visualization camera) positioned near the PDMD for collecting images of spots on the substrate in order to visualize their shape and the positions. The source plate holder is a fixed tray that has 24 positions where to insert the solutions to be spotted; the planar target holder is a 15x20cm plate where lots of substrates can be positioned in order to create simultaneously multiple microarrays. The instrument includes also the inDot software with which it is possible to coordinate the PDMD and create the microarray of interest.

Read more - www.labion.eu

 

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