Drug Discovery
the past several years and most are concentrating on an instrument-based approach – there are already many technical reviews covering new instruments (see, for example, Rich & Myszka15) which can be subdivided into Biacore-like Instrumentation and those with a substantively dif- ferent approach. Corning, BioRad, ForteBio and TTPLabtech all have commercial offerings which require instrumentation that is expensive and ded- icated to the purpose. Despite using different tech- nologies, all the systems aim to address similar application areas as Biacore. Some offer higher throughput and improved ability to screen frag- ments whereas others provide benefits such as the use of crude samples. However, as a consequence of high instrument cost, the need for expert users (see Rich & Myszka15 for the pitfalls that can catch the unwary and even expert users) and limit- ed throughput, none of these dedicated instrument- based approaches has resulted in a high uptake of use of kinetic analyses early in the drug discovery process. Currently the ratio of cost to throughput compares unfavourably with other technologies
and is the key limitation – the cost per data point in an average automated system is estimated at 15- 30 times higher for SPR (excluding instrument cost) than traditional in vitro methods. High capi- tal cost is an additional hurdle which inhibits many laboratories from entering this field and may have contributed to the withdrawal of the FujifilmPharma offering from the SPR market. Some companies, eg SensiQ, have chosen to reduce the level of automation in their equipment so as to reduce the cost to own, at the expense of through- put or convenience, although innovations in the way the equipment is used may mitigate this16. ForteBio has adopted an alternative approach to the Biacore-like implementation with the Octet family of instruments that dip optical microfibres directly into the wells of standard plates rather than requiring complex microfluidics. With similar flexibility to Biacore and a reasonable throughput, the Octet offers a real alternative at a reduced (but still substantial) capital outlay. As a further inno- vation, ForteBio has attempted to broaden the scope of use of its equipment so that it has utility
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info@BIOCIUS.com Drug Discovery World Summer 2011 43
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