Label-free biosensor instrument to study biomolecular interactions

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Label-free biosensor instruments are well established benchtop set-ups to quantitatively assess biomolecular interactions such as protein-protein and small-molecule protein interactions. They give access to dissociation constants and to the kinetic parameters of associations and dissociations. Typically, one of the binding partners is immobilized on a support – thereby alleviating any issue that could result from its aggregation in solution – and the association of the other binding partner in solution is quantified by a physical method such as surface plasmon resonance or bio-layer interferometry. Such instruments are of common use in chemical, pharmaceutical and biological research. They may be equipped with variable levels of throughput. The three research groups that jointly prepared this application work at the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Munich (LMU). They already have considerable expertise in investigating biomolecular interactions and use for that purpose different instruments of variable versatility (NMR, ITC, fluorescence polarization) which all have advantages but also drawbacks and limitations. Research in the department of Pharmacy has gained momentum to the point that the lack of a biosensor instrument in the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy has become a collective impediment. The new instrument will be used primarily by the three applicants and will also be accessible to other users from the Faculty and beyond.