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Comparison Study of SPR Instruments Using Commercially Relevant Binding Systems

Comparison Study of SPR Instruments Using Commercially Relevant Binding Systems:

  • A protein-protein interaction was analyzed on the OpenSPR and the standard SPR insturment. 
  • Kinetic analysis was used to determine the on rate, off rate, and affinity constant of the protein-protein interaction.
  • Both data sets generated from OpenSPR and the comparison SPR instrument show excellent fits to the theoretical models with very low errors and chi squared values, confirming the accuracy of the OpenSPR instrument compared to the standard SPR system.

How much does OpenSPR™ cost compared to the commercial SPR instrument?

OpenSPR is a benchtop SPR solution which provides researchers with the ability to complete in-depth label-free binding kinetics in their own lab. Compared to the standard SPR solution in the pharmaceutical industry, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. With OpenSPR, you can get the same high-quality data from the convenience of your own lab. This allows researchers to accelerate their research and publish faster for just a fraction of the cost.

How does OpenSPR™ perform compared to the commercial standard SPR instrument? 

Not only is OpenSPR affordable, but it also produces data that is comparable to the industry standard. In order to show that OpenSPR is able to generate comparable results to the standard SPR instrument, protein-protein interactions were analyzed using both instruments under similar conditions.

Comparison Study: Analyzing Protein-Protein Interactions with OpenSPR™ and the commercial SPR instrument?

In this study, we measured the binding kinetics of a protein-protein interaction on both the OpenSPR and the standard SPR insturment. Both instruments were run by a trained technical in a testing lab. The goal of the study was to produce useful information for researchers and industry experts that could put them in a better position to understand the capabilities of the OpenSPR. The kon, koff, and KD of the protein-protein interaction was determined and compared using kinetic analysis. If you are interested in knowing more about the materials, protocol and equipment used for the experimental procedure, you can view our detailed technical note. Now let’s take a look at the data:

Figure 1. Protein-protein interaction analyzed using OpenSPR™ with analyte protein concentrations of 6.25, 12.6, 25, 50nM.

Figure 2. Protein-protein interaction analyzed using the standard SPR instrument with analyte protein concentrations of 6.25, 12.6, 25, 50nM.

OpenSPR™ Standard SPR Instrument
kon [1/M*s] 8.18e5 8.18e5
koff [1/s] 1.25e-3 5.61e-4
KD  1.53 0.686

Table 1. Kinetic and affinity constants of protein-protein interaction measured on OpenSPR™ and the standard SPR system.

Comparison Study Results 

Results from the protein-protein interaction measured on the OpenSPR can be found in Figure 1 and the other SPR instrument in Figure 2. The calculated on-rates and KD magnitude values are identical.  OpenSPR determined a KD of 1.53nM while the other instrument determined a KD of 0.686nM, since the off-rates differ by approximately 50%, this causes the KD to differ by the same amount. The OpenSPR and the standard SPR system produced KDs within the same range when you consider the typical 2-3X variation expected between different instruments. These values are extremely close considering the standard SPR experiment was done with a much lower ligand density, used single cycle without regeneration and used a significantly shorter off rate period compared to the OpenSPR. Both data sets show excellent fits to the theoretical models with very low errors and chi squared values.

The results of this study validate the performance of OpenSPR against the SPR industry standard. For more details, you can find the full application note here.

“We spent many hours trying to run our protein-protein interaction on a traditional SPR instrument with no success. After running the same experiment on the OpenSPR, we immediately got the data we needed.”

Now that you’ve learned how comparable the accuracy and high quality kinetics are between OpenSPR and the commercial SPR instrument, we hope it will help you make your decision on which instrument is right for you. If you are an individual researcher working on your own applications or an industry expert needing a compact yet comprehensive way to get real-time binding kinetics to gain traction on your important projects, OpenSPR is an innovative benchtop solution.

Find out how benchtop SPR can help you publish sooner.

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