Refeyn is a young company founded in 2018 as a spin-off from the University of Oxford. It specialises in mass photometry, an optical measurement technique that requires only nanograms of the sample. Tobias Gubbey, Technical Sales Specialist at Refeyn, showcased how mass photometry accelerates analytics from antibody measurement and can derisk scientific projects.
Unlike other methods such as SEC, mass photometry does not involve columns, avoiding issues like column clogging and UV absorption interactions. It also has low sample demand, requiring only nanograms of sample for analysis. Furthermore, mass photometry is a single molecule method, and no markers are required.
Gubbey explained that biomolecules are in solution and begin to interact with each other. The biomolecules bind to the glass surface which has a certain charge. The next step uses a laser to illuminate the biomolecule. The binding events are detected through scattering signals, which are proportional to the size and mass of the biomolecule. Mass photometry is particularly useful for early-stage project analysis and buffer optimisation.
Moreover, mass photometry can easily detect whether the antibody is in a monomeric, dimeric, or tetrameric state. Additionally, this method can identify high molecular weight side products during antibody production and development, helping to de-risk projects early.
Size exclusion is useful when purifying proteins and biomolecules, but the quality of resolution is dependent on their molecular weight. Whereas mass photometry offers linear resolution from 30 kDa to 5 million kDa. Gubbey commented that mass Refeyn’s SamuxMP Instrument can be used for cell and gene therapy analysis of AAV, specifically, it measures whether an AAV capsid is full, partial, or empty.
Overall, Gubbey successfully demonstrated how mass photometry offers a revolutionary approach to biomolecule analysis. This technique stands out among the crows due to minimal sample requirements, marker-free methodology, and rapid results, making it an invaluable tool for early-stage research and project acceleration.
