Founding the Future of Stability Measurements
In this series of blog posts, we will discuss the entire journey of Protein Stable and how our product SUPR-CM was born. It highlights the current needs in the market and how our plate reader technology is providing you with high throughput protein characterization using low sample volumes. The journey continues in this post as the product requirements are refined from market research.
Additional market analysis was commissioned to ensure all features of the new instrument under development meet the specifications of the customer application, in order to refine the market demand for the new equipment. With other technologies being developed to automate protein stability by chemical melts, there was a need in the market for a new player. Existing systems used too much protein for them to be viable in the throughputs required, therefore we needed a system that used low sample amounts. Flexibility of methods was important as (rather awkwardly) different proteins reach unfolding equilibria at different rates. Costs of consumables were a concern with proprietary tubes, capillaries and labware increasing running costs. Some reports also required more rich data to be produced as it was clear that unfolding mechanisms can be more complicated than first seen using other stability determination methods.
Therefore, the challenge was set. Make an instrument that delivers chemical melts on a large scale, uses less protein, preferably uses standard labware and can be used consistently across a wide range of proteins. Of course, much of this had already been addressed with the prototype model previously placed with a customer and now it was a matter of refining the design and getting it to market.
