WOBURN, Mass. – SRU Biosystems, a leader in label-free technology, publically announced today the recipients of its Second Annual Label-free Instrument Research Grant. The Company awarded its newly launched BIND® SCANNER to the laboratory of John Lambris and Daniel Ricklin at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The award was chosen on scientific merit including the level of innovation and the degree to which label-free biosensors could significantly advance breakthrough research in basic and applied science as well as in drug discovery.

“We are very excited to award the BIND SCANNER to Drs. Lambris and Ricklin,” said Richard W. Wagner, Ph.D., President and CEO of SRU Biosystems. “In the past decades, this research group has significantly shaped and extended our understanding of the integrated role the human complement system plays in immune surveillance, cell homeostasis and inflammatory signaling, and investigated the involvement and therapeutic inhibition of complement in a variety of diseases. To date, Drs. Lambris and Ricklin have integrated our label-free technology into their laboratory’s workflow, which ranges from biochemical and structural to cell-based and in vivo studies. Based on the success they have had with the BIND PROFILER, they wished to push the label-free system further in their work and extend their studies to primary cells. The BIND SCANNER allows label-free cellular responses to be monitored in real time at high resolution with low numbers of cells, including mixed cell population analysis, cell migration, receptor activation, and cell adhesion analysis. The work plan proposed by Dr. Lambris and Dr. Ricklin maximizes the use of each of these applications across a spectrum of primary cells to unlock further understanding of the role of complement in different physiological and pathological systems.”

Research efforts in the laboratory of Drs. Lambris and Ricklin are centered around one of the most ancient pillars of human immunity, the complement system, which not only fulfills important roles in the recognition and elimination of pathogenic intruders but also contributes to key physiological effects ranging from metabolism to organ development. In view of the dynamic and complex interplay of complement with both circulation- and cell-based bodily systems, the laboratory heavily relies on a highly integrated research approach covering biochemical, biophysical, structural, computational, cell-based and in vivo assays. A growing body of research suggests that many complement-mediated cellular responses are highly specific to cell types and may thereby trigger distinct signaling events. The utilization of holistic assays directly in primary cells has long been anticipated, yet was often limited by the availability of sufficient cell numbers. The BIND SCANNER will therefore fill an important gap and expedite the research on the cross-talk of complement with immune cells, in disease models ranging from cancer and sepsis to macular degeneration, and in the discovery of complement-targeted inhibitors. Given the versatility of the BIND technology, Dr. Lambris and Dr. Ricklin also plan to integrate the BIND instruments in other key projects of the laboratory that cover host-pathogen interaction and biomaterial research.

About the BIND SCANNER

The BIND SCANNER is a new label-free detection instrument that was launched at the 17th Annual SBS Conference in Orlando, Florida on March 28th, 2011. The instrument allows high resolution, label-free detection of individual cells using the company’s proprietary optical biosensors in a 96, 384, or 1536 well format. The software tools developed with the instrument allow for sophisticated analysis of mixed populations of cells, receptor activation and downstream signaling, cell adhesion, cellular toxicity, cell division, cell migration and invasion, stem cell differentiation, and gene expression/cell line development. The specially designed biosensors can be used for both label-free detection and continuous monitoring of live cells, as well as for fluorescence detection for further validation of cellular processes.

About SRU Biosystems

SRU Biosystems, Inc., is a life science company developing novel technologies for rapidly analyzing the interactions of large genomic, protein, peptide, antibody or small molecule compound libraries against a wide range of cellular and biochemical targets. SRU is incorporating its technology into microtiter plates, microarray slides, cartridges and other industry standard formats to create sensitive and high throughput tools that can be used to answer important biological questions for biomedical research, pharmaceutical drug discovery and diagnostics. www.srubiosystems.com