San Diego-based Silicon Kinetics, a life sciences tools company that provides optical interferometry instruments on nano-porous silicon biochips, has released a seamless fluidic/pressure interface for mass spectrometry analysis.
SKi Bridge Interface to Mass Spectrometry
The interface is designed for AC-MS (affinity capture - mass spectroscopy) applications for interfacing between mass spectrometers and Silicon Kinetics’ SKi Pro instruments.
Silicon Kinetics had earlier announced that biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies had adopted AC-MS. The President of Silicon Kinetics, John Ervin, stated that the SKi Bridge fluidic interface eased the combination of MS detection with label-free binding. In the AC-MS process, only certain molecules that have the required release/binding profiles are eluted through the SKi Bridge fluidic interface into mass spectrometers. Ervin added that many of the present AC-MS customers use the AC-MS to conduct high throughput screens of the binding of small molecules. These would not be possible with other label-free type instrumentation products. He further said that AC-MS was useable till 15,000 psi in a fully in-line type of setup. AC-MS includes the information of mass spectroscopy and the sensitiveness of label-free interaction analysis.
Silicon Kinetics had developed the industry’s first three-dimensional biosensor surface designed for label-free interaction analysis. The company’s NPOI (nano-pore optical interferometry) technology enables label-free detection and affinity-capture on three-dimensional silicon surfaces.