Resonant Acoustic Profiling (RAP™) and Rupture Event Scanning (REVS™)

Abstract

Following the release of widely available commercial instruments in the 1990s, researchers have driven the development of biosensor-based methods for profiling and screening of small molecule and proteinaceous therapeutic drug candidates. Medicinal chemists have in turn demanded faster and more accurate assays for characterisation of drug candidate interactions with target receptors, serum proteins and side-effect profiling receptors. In response to this challenge, Akubio Ltd. (Cambridge, UK) has been developing an advanced label-free detection platform, resonant acoustic profiling (RAP™). This evolution of the basic QCM approach has the potential to change the way assays are performed and to generate novel information on molecular interactions. Key attributes covered in this chapter include the ability to multiplex to high numbers of resonators, the addition of robust interfacial surface chemistries, fully automated sample handling and sample processing, disposable microfluidic cassettes with submicrolitre dead volumes, and more sensitive detection electronics.

Akubio has also developed a sensitive and economical method to directly detect particulate analytes. The technique, which we term rupture event scanning (REVS™), is based on control of the amplitude of oscillation of an acoustic wave device on which the analytes have been captured. In this chapter, example applications of RAP™ for proteins and small molecules and REVS™ for virus detection are presented. The physical forces involved in the processes are also discussed.