Ireland
Two Finnish SMEs have developed Upconverting Nanoparticles (UCNP) technology chemistry and detection tools to utilize in healthcare, environment and pharma assay. The companies are looking for sales partners to collaborate with, in the form of own equipment manufacturing or distribution agreements.
Two Finnish diagnostic industry SMEs have as a joint venture developed Upconverting Nanoparticles (UCNP) technology chemistry and detection tools. The companies have jointly accumulated a combined experience of more than 100 years in developing world leading assay development chemistries and detection tools both for research and In Vitro Diagnostic (IVD) use.
UCNP is a comprehensive concept built around a novel label technology known as photon upconversion. In this unique technology, upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) convert near-infrared (NIR) radiation to visible light via a unique process that enables the photoluminescence to be measured entirely free of autofluorescence and scattered excitation light.
UCNP particles are 35 nm sized inorganic crystals that are doped with two kinds of lanthanide ions, [Yb3 ] Ytterbium [Yb3 ] as sensitizer ion and erbium [Er3 ] as activator ion. The Yb3 ion absorbs an NIR photon and transfers the energy to Er3, which stores the energy in a long lifetime intermediate state. This allows time for the second NIR photon to arrive and “pump” the energy to a higher energy state, after which a single high-energy visible light photon is emitted. This process requires considerably less excitation power than two-photon excitation [TPA] technology owing to the long-lived intermediate energy states of the lanthanide ions.
The UCNP particles are available either as ”ready-to-use” labels with streptavidin coupling, or with an amine reactive surface for use in a specific application.
The developed UCNP detection system is a small footprint, versatile and compact multimode plate reader system, with excellent performance featuring UCNP measurement option and with an ability to be upgraded to contain other commonly needed reference detection modes. Assays and research parameters are easily modified utilizing the instrument own software and tests can easily be added to the instrument menu.
The companies are looking for sales partners to healthcare, environment or pharma industries. The cooperation is considered to be in the form of OEM manufacturing or distribution under the company's or distributor's own brand.
- Specific area of activity of the partner: The expected partners are experienced and networked clinical, diagnostic, environmental or pharma assay developers or determination technology experts looking for a novel improved technology solution. The preferable cooperation model is OEM manufacturing or distribution agreement under the company's or distributor's brand.
The UCNP particles provide several advantages such as the elimination of autofluorescence due to the NIR-excitation which enables the detection through tissue and even whole blood. The emission is bright, the bands are discrete and they have a long lifetime. When using UCNP particles no photobleaching or self-quenching is seen.
Research institutes developing various bioaffinity assays, SMEs or bigger companies in the life science field developing for example quantitative lateral flow for point-of-care environment, can improve their existing method with a new type of detection system based on UCNP particles and advanced instrumentation.
A small footprint, versatile and compact multimode plate reader, with excellent performance which is the first commercially available plate reader with an UCNP reading option. This new system brings the new UCNP technology into the life science laboratory. Consisting of UCNPs together with a unique microplate reader the system is the first of its kind in the world and offers many benefits over traditional label technologies. With UCNPs by converting near-infrared radiation (NIR) into visible light the emission signal can be measured free of auto-fluorescence and scattered excitation light. The emission signal comes from lanthanide ions being very stable with a long lifetime (from µs to ms). These two factors render the instrumentation simple, yet robust. This scientific collaboration results in the option of measuring up-converting nanoparticles. This offers a possibility to achieve a more than two orders of magnitude better signal to noise ratio versus traditional measurements preformed with Lateral Flow - gold particles.
• Autofluorescence eliminated
• Detection even through tissue and in whole blood
• Measurement without photobleaching or self-quenching
Ideal for
• bioaffinity assays
• quantitative lateral flow tests
• microscopy and imaging.
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