Starpharma's DNT Priostar Dendrimers Improve Properties of Marketed Fluorescent Reagents
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Starpharma, through its US subsidiary company Dendritic Nanotechnologies Inc(DNT), has found that DNT's Priostar™ dendrimer technology can be used to amplify the signal and increase the duration of the signal (photostability) of existing products in the multi-billion dollar fluorescent reagents market. The company has filed a patent for the discovery through DNT.
Fluorescent reagents are used extensively in laboratories for high- throughput screening, diagnostic immunoassays, microarrays, fluorescence microscopy, genomics and proteomics.
Strong signals and photostability are extremely important properties as they increase the sensitivity of detection methods and facilitate measurement of the signal, respectively. Increased sensitivity is needed to study disease markers that are present at very low levels - often below those detectable with current technologies.
Using its Priostar™ technology, DNT has created dye-dendrimer complexes from various commercial dyes that show enhanced fluorescent (greater than 10 fold) and photostability (greater than 4 fold), in addition to improved solubility in water.
Preliminary testing has shown that the enhanced properties of Priostar™ dendrimer-dye complexes are retained after attachment to an antibody, an integral component for many of the applications of fluorescent dyes.
"Market feedback indicates that the scientific community and industry users of these products will highly value the availability of reagents with increased sensitivity and photostability," said Dr. Lori Reyna, director of life sciences at DNT. Scientists are always keen to increase the sensitivity of detection and quantitation methods."
DNT will partner with established leaders in the diagnostic and research reagent industries through licensing and supply agreements.
The initial commercialization target will be the research reagent and in vitro diagnostic markets. DNT is currently in preliminary commercialization discussions with the market leaders in the area of fluorescence reagents.
