ForteBio this week introduced its new Octet QK instrument for small protein and peptide analysis.
The launch is the next generation of ForteBio's eight-channel Octet instrument and enables biosensors to be re-racked for increased workflow flexibility and cost savings, the company said in a statement.
The Octet system is based on ForteBio's Biolayer Interferometry technology that uses optical biosensors to measure multiple interactions in parallel without having to use detection agents. The system comes in an eight- and 16-channel model that accommodates 96- and 384-well assay formats.
The company also launched its Anti-Penta HIS biosensors for rapid, label-free quantitation of HIS-tagged proteins.
The biosensor comes with the "highly specific" Qiagen Penta-HIS antibody immobilized on the surface and is ready for use on ForteBio's Octet system for specific detection and quantification of HIS-tagged proteins, ForteBio said.
Compugen this week launched its Protein-Protein Interaction Blockers Discovery Platform for predicting peptides to block diseases associated with protein-protein interactions.
The platform consists of a component that creates a predicted protein-protein interaction map for the protein target of interest in a selected biological pathway. The map is based on known protein partners and additional proteins predicted by Compugen to be potential partners by analyses of human and non-human proteomes and interaction data.
A second component of the platform is based on computationally identifying the predicted protein-protein binding segments through sequences and structural characteristics.
The peptide blockers can be used as therapeutic peptides or as epitopes for developing therapeutic antibodies, Compugen said in a statement.
The company added that in a validation run, the peptides predicted by the PPI Blockers Discovery Platform showed "positive results" for drug targets in two cancer-related pathways "of interest to the industry."