Music to Microscale Ears

Courtesy of Gyros

Uppsala, Sweden-based Gyros will expand its line of Gyrolab™ microlaboratories on compact disc to include two new products, one to detect phosphorylated proteins and one for protein quantification. The Gyrolab MALDI (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization) IMAC™ (immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography) captures phosphorylated peptides and prepares samples prior to MALDI mass spectrometry. Gyrolab Bioaffy™ is designed for protein quantification and reduces sample and reagent requirements while enabling more proteins to be analyzed per sample. Along with the two new CDs, Gyros has also previewed a new version of the Gyrolab Workstation, including a laser-based fluorescent detector for protein quantification, at the June 2003 meeting of the American Society of Mass Spectrometry.

Gyros' technology platform consists of a plastic microfluidic CD containing a large number of microstructures that process multiple samples in parallel. When the disc spins, liquids are drawn by centrifugal force through the microstructures to the outside...