Biocompatibles Announce Free Samples of CelLuminate™ Intracellular Delivery System

Biocompatibles is launching a new product in its CelLuminate™ range of intracellular delivery systems, at EMBO 2009 in Amsterdam on the 29th August – 1st September. The new CelLuminate™ VPS (Vesicle-forming Polymer System) improves the efficiency of intracellular delivery of bioactive molecules compared to conventional liposomal systems. It can deliver anything from fluorophores to RNA, DNA and proteins – efficiently and with minimal cytotoxic effects.

To celebrate the launch, Biocompatibles is giving away 10 samples of CelLuminate VPS (worth £200 each) in a prize draw. To enter the draw, researchers will need to visit Biocompatibles on Stand 29 at EMBO. Those not attending the conference can enter the draw online by following the company article page link to the top right of this page. The draw closes at 4pm on Monday 14th September 2009.

CelLuminate is made from proprietary biomimetic copolymer and exploits the natural cellular endocytotic pathways. As the surface chemistry of the vesicles mimics that of cell membranes, the rate and amount of vesicles endocytosed is orders of magnitude higher than conventional liposomal systems. Being pH-sensitive, the CelLuminate vesicles utilise the pH drop in the endosome to deliver the desired payload into the cell cytosol. CelLuminate VPS is designed so that researchers can prepare their own vesicles to encapsulate any bioactive agent, easily and without experience.

CelLuminate VPS, has been developed following requests from researchers using the CelLuminate Red rhodamine-loaded cell staining system, which was launched earlier this year. CelLuminate Red has enabled improved cell fluorescence studies, as cells can live for up to two weeks and fluorescence lasts longer. “We know that researchers find that CelLuminate is easy to use and practical” said Tim Maloney, Biocompatibles’ Marketing Director. “Speaking with researchers who were using CelLuminate Red, it was clear that many also wanted to use the CelLuminate vesicle delivery system to deliver their own fluorescent probes, and other bioactive molecules – which led to the development of CelLuminate VPS. As we are still exploring the potential of the system, we wanted to offer researchers the opportunity to trial CelLuminate VPS at no cost, and the ideal way to do this was in a prize draw.