SAW Instruments GmbH

sam^®X New Product for Fall 2011

This exciting new platform will have its European Launch at MipTec 2011 (Basel 20-22 September) and US Launch at IBC Antibody Engineering Conference (San Diego, 4-8th December). It is already in production with the first 5 customer units to be delivered in Q4 2011.

sam^®X is the latest addition to the sam^® family of biosensor products from SAW Instruments, and uses the same proven and proprietary Surface Acoustic Wave technology for detection of mass binding and conformational changes.

sam^®X is introduced as the high-end product with novel, elegant fluidics to maximize workflow flexibility by virtue of increased number of channels, and options for independent or sequential channel processing.

The system has 8 channels – arranged as two sensor chips, each with 4 channels. It can be used as a 1 chip (4 channels), or two independent 1 chip systems, or combined 2 chip (8 channel) system.

A key new feature is that each channel is individually addressable by the fluidics. Practically this means that different ligands can be immobilized on each sensor chip position automatically, on-line through the fluidic lines. This contrasts with the simpler sequential flow only sam^®5, where if different capture ligands are required on the same chip, these need to be first immobilized off-line using the spotting device. Loading capture protein through the lines can be advantageous where you want to accurately quantify the amount of bound protein directly onto the sensor chip surface.

The fluidics can be set up and switched into combination flow paths to suit the workflow. They can be used as 8 discrete channels or switched into sequential combinations of 4 x 2, 2 x 4 or 1 x8 channels. This provides a really flexible and elegant way to combine steps during a workflow which may require discrete or common reagents to be delivered to particular sensor chip positions.

The system also features automatic buffer exchange with two different buffer bottles on the side of the system (compares with one buffer for sam^®5). This means buffer changes can be programmed into the measurement sequence.

sam^®X uses the same autosampler as the sam^®5, and hence occupies the same small benchtop footprint. The autosampler is a single syringe and has the 2 x SBS footprint sample positions for medium throughput workflows. For an example of walk away operation, one 96 well plate can be loaded and started on the first chip, then a second 96 well plate can be added later and programmed to start on the second chip, once the first chip experiment has finished.

For the new fluidics, the sam^®X has its own new sensor chip design (see picture below) which is available in all the same standard chemistries which are available for sam^®5, with added benefit of even lower price than sam^®5 chips.

New sam^®X chips

back to top print