Protein analysis requires extensive knowledge and is now crucial. The company Fluidic Analytics is at the forefront of protein analysis and the development of in-solution diffusional sizing to better understand protein interactions in living organisms. To illustrate why this is so crucial, fluidic analytics often use the following metaphor: Similar to how a list of a mechanical watch’s parts (such as cogs, gears, screws, and springs) may tell a lot about that watch, the identification of proteins in a biological system can reveal a great deal about its structure and function. However, one probably won’t be able to construct a watch from scratch or fix a broken one with just that list of components. Instead of just listing the components, fluidic analytics focus on how they all work together, such as which gears mesh with which cogs and how tightly each screw and spring have to be adjusted.

Originally founded by researchers at the University of Cambridge, Fluidic Analytics was motivated by the need to better understand the biology of illness and health but limited by the capabilities of existing technologies. So, they set out to create substitute equipment. Fluidic is confident that protein interactions will be the key to the next major discoveries in medicine and biology. Understanding the course of biological evolution has been revolutionized by genomics. Fluidic Analytics believes that figuring out how proteins work together to produce the machinery of life is the actual key to comprehending biology in real-time, whether they’re talking about an antibody binding to an antigen or a medicine binding to its target. Similarly to how knowing how the parts in a mechanical watch interact could be a game changer for someone trying to build a watch from scratch or fix a broken one, Fluidc Analytics believes that this additional layer of information about how the parts interact—how strongly, how weakly, or in what combination—will be key to understanding the biology of disease and health. There is more to biology than just tallying up the number of proteins, as evidenced by the fact that antibodies bind to antigens and drugs bind to their targets. Protein-molecular interactions are at the heart of all biological processes.

The Fluidic Analytics platform, which can be provided as either a service or as a set of benchtop instruments and consumables, has many potential applications, including but not limited to understanding interactions with difficult targets beyond the traditional drug-target interactions well served by technologies such as surface plasmon resonance or bio-layer interference. For example, they believe that the platform is beginning to reveal significant insights into the mechanisms of action through which pharmaceuticals interact with problematic targets, such as bispecific antibodies, PROTACs, and fibrillar targets. “We think it is great that there is a range of technologies and products out there designed to get more data points into a machine-learning algorithm to analyze them. “We think what we think is going to be key, and the real contribution we can make is getting more out of every single data point,” says Andrew Lynn, CEO of Fluidic Analytics.

Fluidic Analytics Ltd. exhibits at several events, where it will demonstrate its cutting-edge technology for investigating protein-protein interactions. Data from the team’s soon-to-be-released instrument, the Fluidity One-W, which allows researchers to evaluate on-target protein interactions in solution and even in basic biological backdrops, will be presented at each event around Europe. The Fluidity One-W allows for comprehensive protein analysis in their natural surroundings and near-native forms, giving scientists access to more precise and comprehensive information about protein-protein interactions. Microfluidic diffusional sizing (MDS) is a unique feature that allows users to adjust for off-target binding and false positive results while still generating absolute size measurements with high confidence in the data. Protein-protein interactions may be studied in great depth, with data gathered on binding kinetics, KD estimates, and stoichiometries. The Fluidity One-W is extremely simple to use, requiring just a pipette and a power source to get up and running. It requires very little in the way of sample preparation, which means it may be used to cut expenses and speed up analysis at an early stage.

The discipline of immunology as a whole has great promise for the individualization of vaccinations and the screening of individuals for things like anti-drug antibody reactions. It all boils down to the interaction of a protein with an antigen, which may be anything from a medication to a virus. Fluidic Analytics sees tremendous opportunity for development in that sector, and we’re thrilled about it. Fluidic Analytics foresees a future in which knowledge of proteins and their actions revolutionizes our comprehension of the workings of the biological world and empowers us to make more informed choices in the diagnosis, development, and maintenance of health. Fluidic Analytics is making this vision a reality, not just for a select set of power users, but for everyone who can benefit, by creating the greatest tools, software, and services in the world for protein characterization and making them broadly accessible in the lab, the clinic, and at home.