Biacore was a

life science Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, respon ...

products company based in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. In June 2006 Biacore was sold for $390 million and became a product brand under GE Healthcare life Sciences, which became Cytiva in April 2020. Biacore products measure biomolecular interactions, including protein-protein interactions, small molecule/fragment-protein interactions, etc. Its technology is often used to measure not only binding affinities, but kinetic rate constants and thermodynamics as well. The technology is based on

surface plasmon resonance Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a phenomenon that occurs where electrons in a thin metal sheet become excited by light that is directed to the sheet with a particular angle of incidence (optics), angle of incidence, and then travel parallel to ...

(SPR), an optical phenomenon that enables detection of unlabeled interactants in real time. The SPR-based biosensors can be used in determination of active concentration as well as characterization of molecular interactions in terms of both affinity and

chemical kinetics Chemical kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, is the branch of physical chemistry that is concerned with understanding the rates of chemical reactions. It is different from chemical thermodynamics, which deals with the direction in which a ...

History

Biacore was founded in 1984 under the name of Pharmacia Biosensor AB, by researchers from

Pharmacia Pharmacia was a pharmaceutical and biotechnological company in Sweden that merged with the American pharmaceutical company Upjohn in 1995. History Pharmacia company was founded in 1911 in Stockholm, Sweden by pharmacist Gustav Felix Grönfel ...

Linköping Institute of Technology Linköping ( , ) is a city in southern Sweden, with around 167,000 inhabitants as of 2024. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Chu ...

and the

Swedish National Defence Research Institute Swedish National Defence Research Institute (, FOA) was a Swedish government agency in defense research existing from 1945 to 31 December 2000. It was amalgamated with the National Aeronautical Research Institute (FFA) into the Swedish Defence ...

(FOA, now renamed the

Swedish Defence Research Agency The Swedish Defence Research Agency (, FOI; literal translation: ''Total Defence Research Institute'') is a government agency in Sweden for total defence research and development. FOI has its headquarters in Kista (Stockholm). Other FOI offic ...

or FOI). The first Biacore SPR instrument was commercially released in 1990. In 1996 the company changed its name to Biacore AB Corporation.

Technology

A simple interaction experiment involves immobilizing one molecule of a binding pair on the sensor chip surface ("ligand", in Biacore parlance) and injecting a series of concentrations of its partner ("analyte") across the surface. Changes in the index of refraction at the surface where the binding interaction occurs are detected by the hardware and recorded as RU (resonance units) in the control software. Curves are generated from the RU trace and are evaluated by fitting algorithms which compare the raw data to well-defined binding models. These fits allow determination of a variety of thermodynamic constants, including the apparent affinity of the binding interaction. SPR is one of many methods for protein-protein and protein-ligand interaction assessment, see Methods to investigate protein–protein interactions.

External links

Biacore Sensor Surface Handbook

Principle of Surface Plasmon resonance (SPR) used in Biacore

References

{{Reflist, 1 Biotechnology companies of Sweden General Electric Healthcare subsidiaries Technology companies established in 1984 Companies based in Uppsala County Uppsala