BIAcore: a microchip-based system for analyzing the formation of macromolecular complexes.

Abstract

The formation of macromolecular complexes, for example the complex between an antibody and an antigen, is essential to many biological processes. In order to gain a better insight into the biological processes involved, the formation of complexes is often measured and their interaction kinetics and affinities analyzed. Considerable effort has been expended in developing techniques to measure the formation of complexes, the most promising being electronic microchip-based biosensors. Such analytical systems have come into increasing use recently for the characterization of interactions between biological macromolecules and ligands. One such commercially available system, called BIAcore (Pharmacia Biosensor, Uppsala, Sweden), uses biosensor-based technology and offers a method for rapid analysis of interaction kinetics and affinities. Such systems have the advantage of replacing tedious binding assays utilizing radiolabelled or fluorescent components and potentially unstable cell lines, and can be used where biological activity assays are not available.