MicroCal™ VP-Capillary Differential Scanning Calorimetry Software

GE Healthcare has announced the launch of their MicroCal VP-Capillary Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) software for the automated, high throughput analysis of changes in protein stability. This analytical system enables early characterization of the stability of molecules in solution, providing critical information in protein engineering, from pre-formulation and process development to the formulation of the final biopharmaceutical product.

The new software minimizes the data analysis bottleneck and simplifies experiment design and setup. By providing a single, intuitive graphical user interface for selecting and entering all sample and experiment run parameters, assay development time is kept to a minimum. The software also streamlines the workflow allowing flexible instrument scheduling, while the automated data sorting and analysis capabilities can reduce the time required for analysis of a typical experiment from days to hours.

Dr Katherine Bowers of Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies commented, “The MicroCal VP-Capillary DSC system has changed the way we design our formulation experiments. For example, the automated sampler requires smaller sample volumes and reduces user variation thereby producing consistent, better quality data. Most of all, the high throughput is supported by the analysis software, which is easy to use and requires no more manual calculations therefore saving us hours. These time savings have really improved our workflow.”

MicroCal VP-Capillary DSC system works by allowing protein unfolding to be studied quickly without the use of labels or artificial probes as it determines the heat absorbed by the sample as the protein unfolds, giving a measure of thermal stability and an indication of long-term stability. The system allows the study of up to 50 samples per day with fully automated cell filling, injection, and cleaning functions thereby enabling unattended operation.

The software is available with all new MicroCal VP-Capillary DSC systems and as an upgrade for current users. MicroCal Manual Capillary DSC is also available without an autosampler for applications where higher throughput and unattended operation and sample handling are not required.