News
March 13, 2011
The on-line addition of Nature Biotechnology published "Label-free quantification of membrane-ligand interactions using backscattering interferometry" authored by Michael M Baksh, Amanda K Kussrow, Mauro Mileni, M G Finn & Darryl J Bornhop of The Scripps Institute and Vanderbilt University.
It presents data showing that backscattering interferometry (BSI) can accurately quantify ligand-receptor binding affinities in a variety of membrane environments.
March 27, 2011
The on-line addition of The Economist reported the use of BSI technology to investigate binding of ligands to membrane proteins and its significance related to drug discovery. The article is entitled, Drug discovery, New light on proteins.
September 20, 2007
The on-line addition of Science Magazine reports that BSI technology enables free-solution, label-free, molecular interaction kinetic and end-point assays at zeptomole levels of sensitivity, using a biosensor with a simple optical train comprised of a He-Ne laser, a microfluidic channel, and a position sensor.
View the Science Article
Press Releases
Molecular Sensing Inc. (MSI) Receives Notice of $2.3M SBIR Phase II Grant Award for Advanced Product Development
November 12, 2011 - Recently, MSI received confirmation from the National Institute of Health (NIH) National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of a $2.3M SBIR Phase II Award to support the creation of an advanced pharmaceutical research platform, based upon the company's proprietary Back-Scattering Interferometry (BSI) molecular interaction assay technology. This award represents acontinuation of work supported by a $200K NIGMS SBIR Phase I award issued in 2010.
Molecular interactions form the basis of healthy metabolism as well as the manifestation of disease, and comprise the very foundation of drug treatment. Tools available to study the interaction of drug candidates and their targets under nascent physiological conditions are significantly limited. Current products fall short of addressing the demands to accelerate drug discovery and development for cell membrane protein targets. Membrane proteins, which make
up about 1/3 of the human proteome, interact with a wide range of biologically relevant species. A specific class of membrane proteins known as G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) is of particular interest, as they represent the principle drug target for about 40% of all prescription pharmaceuticals and over half of the top one hundred best selling drugs. Currently, there does not exist a practical, direct means to study GPCR – drug binding interactions as they proceed in their native environment. Consequently, current tools significantly under-serve a major drug discovery need, and as such, there exists a profound requirement for a new product to address research demands in the all-important membrane target field.
MSI's Phase II SBIR program is directed towards producing a unique and disruptively enabling BSI instrument for use in drug research. In addition to refining our technology, under Phase II the company will demonstrate the unique strengths and capabilities of BSI to significantly advance progress in the all-important area of membrane protein drug research by capitalizing on collaborations with three world-class research environments: The Groves Laboratory at the
University of California at Berkeley, the Finn Laboratory of Scripps Research Institute and the Bornhop Laboratory at Vanderbilt University.
The culmination of our SBIR program will result in the creation of new products, which the company will sell to its early access customers in pharmaceutical research and academic drug discovery markets. The company predicts that these new products will be rapidly adopted as the new paradigm for membrane protein target drug research, and fuel company growth.
Molecular Sensing, Inc. is a development stage biotechnology company, located in the San Francisco Bay area, dedicated to the commercialization of BSI molecular interaction instrumentation, services and applications that enable label-free in vitro biochemical and cell-based molecular interaction assays using kinetic and quantitative end-point analysis.
MSI's Life Science Early Access Program (LEAP) is a fee-based early access program designed to provide customized collaboration partnerships with major laboratories in basic life sciences and/or translational research, clinical diagnostics, and pharmaceutical R&D. LEAP collaborations are intended to help MSI develop and validate enabling applications as well as to advance the development of its instrumentation.
Molecular Sensing, Inc. Contacts:
LEAP Partnerships: 650-728-8110, EAP@molsense.com
Investors: William E Rich, 510-673-9010, werich@molsense.com
Molecular Sensing Inc. (MSI) Announces Issuance of Key U.S. Patent for Back-Scattering Interferometry
Montara, California, October 30, 2011 - Today, Molecular Sensing, Inc. (MSI), a development stage biotechnology company, announced the issuance of a key U.S. patent that protects the company’s proprietary design for its Back-Scattering Interferometry (BSI) instruments. The patent protects key design and operational elements involved in high fidelity molecular assay performance.
With this recent patent allowance, the company now has five strong U.S. patents with two E.U. analogous applications to strengthen its intellectual property position and exclusive dominance in BSI technology and products.
About Molecular Sensing
Molecular Sensing, Inc. is a development stage biotechnology company, located in the San Francisco Bay area, dedicated to the commercialization of BSI molecular interaction instrumentation, services and applications that enable label-free in vitro biochemical and cell-based molecular interaction assays using kinetic and quantitative end-point analysis.
MSI's Life Science Early Access Program (LEAP) is a fee-based early access program designed to provide customized collaboration partnerships with major laboratories in basic life sciences and/or translational research, clinical diagnostics, and pharmaceutical R&D. LEAP collaborations are intended to help MSI develop and validate enabling applications as well as to advance the development of its instrumentation.
Molecular Sensing, Inc. Contacts:
LEAP Partnerships: 650-728-8110, EAP@molsense.com
Investors: William E Rich, 510-673-9010, werich@molsense.com
Molecular Sensing, Inc. Enters into Agreement with Merck KGaA for Access to Novel
Molecular Interaction Technology
Montara, California, June 9, 2008 - Molecular Sensing, Inc. (MSI) today announced that it has entered into an extensive Life Science Early Access Program (LEAP) agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, acting on behalf of its division for innovative prescription pharmaceuticals, Merck Serono, to evaluate proprietary MSI Back-Scattering Interferometry (BSI) technology. The cooperation will evaluate BSI technology and MSI instrumentation related to drug discovery, development, and research applications. Financial details were not disclosed.
As reported by Bornhop, et al., in Science (September 2007), BSI technology uniquely enables homogeneous assays of molecular interactions at zeptomole sensitivity. Measurements are made in solution to determine affinity constants between associating molecules, free of coupling to spectroscopic labels or tethering to a chip surface.
BSI validated assays include protein binding to metal ions, drugs, peptides, or other proteins, antigen-antibody association, and DNA-protein or DNA-DNA binding, in serum, cell lysates, and cell free media with microliter sample volume and picomolar sensitivity.
"BSI is a breakthrough in molecular interaction assay technology," said Scot Weinberger, MSI's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are pleased to work with Merck Serono, a leader in pharmaceuticals comprising biologics and drugs, to investigate the potential benefits that BSI technology and MSI products can bring to their pharmaceutical discovery, research, and development programs."
About Molecular Sensing
Molecular Sensing, Inc. is a development stage biotechnology company, located in the San Francisco Bay area, dedicated to the commercialization of BSI molecular interaction instrumentation, services and applications that enable label-free in vitro biochemical and cell-based molecular interaction assays using kinetic and quantitative end-point analysis.
MSI's Life Science Early Access Program (LEAP) is a fee-based early access program designed to provide customized collaboration partnerships with major laboratories in basic life sciences and/or translational research, clinical diagnostics, and pharmaceutical R&D. LEAP collaborations are intended to help MSI develop and validate enabling applications as well as to advance the development of its instrumentation.
Molecular Sensing, Inc. Contacts:
LEAP Partnerships: 650-728-8110, EAP@molsense.com
Investors: William E Rich, 510-673-9010, werich@molsense.com
Molecular Sensing Inc. (MSI) Announces Technology Early Access Program Launch
MSI's Back-Scattering Interferometry (BSI) System to Be Used in Developing Diagnostic Platform for Detection of Infectious Diseases
Montara, California, April 28, 2008 - Today, Molecular Sensing, Inc. (MSI), an early stage biotechnology company, announced the launch of its Life Science Early Access Program (LEAP), designed to validate enabling applications of BSI technology and commercial instrumentation.
MSI is pleased to recognize The Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention as our first LEAP partner. The CDC plans to develop a diagnostic platform for detection of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and other infectious diseases. MSI has completed shipment of a pre-production molecular interaction assay system to the CDC to be used in the program.
MSI will cooperate with the laboratories of the CDC's Division of STD Prevention, as that group continues research in a variety of infectious disease programs. A three-way Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to further support infectious disease research using MSI's BSI technology is under development between MSI, the CDC, and the laboratory of Professor Darryl J. Bornhop, at Vanderbilt University.
Scot R. Weinberger, President & CEO of Molecular Sensing commented, "We are pleased that our first LEAP partnership is with the CDC and provides the means to demonstrate the value of BSI technology and MSI's system for infectious disease diagnostic applications".
The journal Science (September 21, 2007) recently reported that BSI technology, invented by Dr. Darryl Bornhop, Professor of Chemistry at Vanderbilt University, and exclusively licensed to MSI, enables homogeneous, label-free, and tether-free molecular interaction kinetic and end-point assays at zeptomole levels of sensitivity, using a biosensor with a simple optical train comprised of a He-Ne laser, a microfluidic channel, and a position sensor.
About Molecular Sensing
Molecular Sensing, Inc. is a development stage biotechnology company, located in the San Francisco Bay area, dedicated to the commercialization of BSI molecular interaction instrumentation, services and applications that enable label-free in vitro biochemical and cell-based molecular interaction assays using kinetic and quantitative end-point analysis.
Montara, California, September 21, 2007 - Today, Molecular Sensing, Inc. (MSI), a next generation biosensor company, announced it has been granted an exclusive license from Vanderbilt University to further develop and commercialize a new biosensor platform based on back-scattering interferometry (BSI). MSI plans to produce biosensor products for research, diagnostic, biodefense and pharmacogenomic applications. MSI is an early stage company located in Montara, California in the San Francisco bay area.
The on-line edition of Science reported today that BSI technology enables free-solution, label-free, molecular interaction kinetic and end-point assays at zeptomole levels of sensitivity, using a biosensor with a simple optical train comprised of a He-Ne laser, a microfluidic channel, and a position sensor.
Measurement of the rate and affinity of biomolecular interactions, such as protein-protein interactions, small molecule-protein interactions, DNA-DNA and DNA-protein binding, not only provides insight into basic cellular function, but can facilitate the development of therapeutics and diagnostics and serve as the basis for many research, diagnostic and pharmacogenomic assays.
Scot R. Weinberger, President & CEO of Molecular Sensing states, "Molecular Sensing's products will provide life science and medical researchers a platform that has significant advantages over ELISA as well as label-free, molecular interaction biosensor approaches such as microcalorimetry, surface plasmon resonance, and other wave-guide technologies. BSI provides zeptomole sensitivity, uses very small sample volumes (< 2 microliters), and requires little apriori knowledge of the molecular interactors, significantly accelerating assay development. BSI can measure over six logs of equilibrium dissociation constants, and operates in both free-solution and surface-bound modes."
Weinberger further states, "MSI plans to develop manual and automated, multiplexed systems for research, near-patient clinical diagnostic testing, as well as industrial and bio-defense point of analysis applications. Our first generation manual, benchtop research product is initially targeted for assay development in basic and translational research, pharmaceutical, and clinical diagnostic applications."
The company is seeking interested laboratories to participate in our fee-based, technology early access program in these areas.
About Molecular Sensing
Molecular Sensing, Inc., an early stage, next generation biosensor company, located in the San Francisco Bay area, is dedicated to the creation of molecular interaction products that deliver free solution or surface-bound, label-free kinetic and end-point assays. MSI's mission is to become a leader in the emerging field of Personalized Medicine, beginning with a focus on validating our technology in research applications involving biomarker discovery and assay development. Our initial market focus is in academic, government and industrial laboratories. While our first products are aimed at benchtop research use, our technology is particularly adaptable to hand-held point-of-care devices and assays for clinical diagnostic as well as biodefense point-of-analysis applications. For more information, please see www.molsense.com.
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