July 20, 2007 — Concentris GmbH of Basel, Switzerland has released measurement and training kits for nanomechanical cantilever sensors. These kits include all chemicals, consumables, protocols, and instructions necessary to functionalize cantilever arrays and make measurements “out of the box.”

Nanomechanical cantilever sensors, a new technology, are highly sensitive, label-free chemical and biosensors. The cantilevers themselves are microfabricated silicon beams that transform chemical interactions at their surface into mechanical motion. Thanks to their thickness of 1 micrometer or less, they can detect surface processes with high sensitivity and in real-time. Functionalized with a chemical coating, they are tunable to address a wide range of applications, including the detection of ions, the study of DNA hybridization and (bio)molecular interactions, or the analysis of layer formation dynamics and conformational changes.

The measurement and training kits complement Concentris’ Cantisens Research cantilever sensor platform, an instrument that reads cantilever sensor arrays with up to eight cantilevers in real-time. The first kits are designed for detection of two specific DNA sequences through hybridization measurements and for the detection of calcium ions.

“The new kits present a significant advance for all researchers entering into the field of cantilever sensors. They enable them to start working with this emerging technology based on thoroughly described functionalization protocols and measurement procedures. Researchers can use the kits as a
starting point for designing new experiments. Obtaining new results will be possible in a much shorter period of time,” says Martin Bammerlin, PhD, head of sales and support at Concentris.