New Immunoassay Platform Simplifies Lab Tasks

A nano-fluidic automated immunoassay platform is designed for the quantitative measurement of cell signaling and protein expression. The workstation is a powerful and convenient tool for lab workers in biochemistry, hematology, immunology, and oncology.

The Firefly 3000 workstation, developed by Cell Biosciences (Palo Alto, CA, USA), automates and streamlines the time-consuming Western blot test by removing the blotting steps and substantially reducing the number of handling steps. The heart of the Firefly system is a 96-capillary automated electrophoresis system that is optimized for isoelectric focusing. The Firefly system can perform virtually all tasks from loading the sample, immobilizing proteins, probing the sample with a single antibody-linked dye, and analyzing the various forms identified. With computer-controlled repeatability and round-the-clock automation, it is designed for unattended, hands-off operation.

Linda Cahill, president and CEO at Cell Biosciences, noted that the new system automates experimentation, increases throughput, documents workflow, and reduces day-to-day and person-to-person variability. In contrast to the Western blot, which is performed manually, the Firefly system reduces the number of steps from 60 to 10, loads samples, captures and processes data, and integrates into the existing lab infrastructure.

The Firefly 300 immunoassay workstation was on display for the first time at the 97th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, held in Washington (DC, USA) in April 2006.



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