technology
Precise, accurate, and innovative spectroscopy for a range of applications down to nanomolar levels.
PWR Technology
Plasmon Waveguide Resonance (PWR) - a kind of optical waveguide spectroscopy - is a surface sensitive and label-free analytical technique in which refractive index changes within a few hundred nanometers of a sensor surface are detected. Any event that causes a refractive index change is a candidate to be studied using PWR.
A similar and much more widely used and commercialized technique, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has been used for decades for applications like DNA sequencing, and the study of biological events such as antigen-antibody¹ and protein-DNA interactions.
Characteristics of PWR Technology
Surface Chemistry
The inherently hydrophilic surface of PWR sensors allows for direct investigation of critical membrane-based interactions such as virus fusion to host cells and G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) binding, as well as other single cell-based events. SPR, on the other hand, is limited by an intrinsically hydrophobic metal surface. This underlying incompatibility with many biological systems means that chemical modification of the surface is often needed when using SPR to study physiological events like the ones mentioned above.
Penetration Depth
The electric field intensity and penetration depth you probe further into system . Furthermore, PWR spectroscopy produces narrow peaks,
Additional Polarization of Light
With PWR spectroscopy, you can make measurements with two polarizations of light: both s- and p-polarization. Having that additional polarization direction lets you gain deeper insight into biological events by investigating the anisotropy of the sample layer, and observing conformational changes—characteristics that are not quantifiable using techniques with a singular polarization direction.