Innovative equipment and machinery for molecular and cellular biology

29^th November 2023

Always at the forefront of analytical sciences

Quality Assistance occupies a unique position in the CRO market by providing on a single GxP site all the analytical services required by EMA and FDA regulations for the development and marketing of innovative human medicinal products.

With cutting-edge facilities, product-specific expertise and a large team of skilled scientists, we offer tailored solutions in terms of analytical protocols and innovative technologies throughout the development process.

Here is a sneak peek of the cutting-edge equipment we use for molecular and cellular biology:

Equipment Quality Assistance Biology Biochemistry

4 High-performance immunoassay platforms

Amongst those platforms, Quality Assistance owns:

2 Mesoscale discovery Quickplex SQ120 using ECL detection for single and multiplex assays.
1 Merck Millipore Magpix Luminex allowing for the simultaneous detection of biomolecules in biological samples using bead-based assay.
1 Gyros Protein Gyrolab xPlore, an automated immunoassay solution providing increased data quality and reduced hands-on time.

2 SPR Systems

At Quality Assistance, Surface Plasmon Resonance assays using Biacore T200 (Cytiva) were developed in order to:

Determine analyte active concentration using calibration-free analysis (CFCA).
Determine affinity and kinetics parameters of monoclonal antibodies with Fc receptors expressed on the effector cells.
Compare biotherapeutics kinetics using the sensorgram comparison tool.
Determine binding parameters of monoclonal antibody (adalimumab) with its target (TNFα).
Determine the concentration of Influenza virus using hemagglutinin calibration curve.

Find more information about Surface Plasmon Resonance at Quality Assistance:

2 DNA Sequencers

The Illumina MiniSeq System enables short-read sequencing of both DNA and RNA with minimal hands-on time, supporting a wide range of applications, from small genome sequencing to targeted gene expression profiling.
The Oxford Nanopore MinION allows for the direct, PCR-free long-read sequencing of native DNA/RNA and can sequence any DNA or RNA fragment length.

Click here to explore our product-specific expertise and analytical services for mRNA-based therapeutics.

1 Flow cytometer

Flow cytometry is a technology that simultaneously measures and analyses multiple physical characteristics of single particles, usually cells, as they flow in a fluid stream through a beam of light.

The Beckman Coulter CytoFlex LX Flow Cytometer is used at Quality Assistance for the qualitative and quantitative measurement of biological and physical properties of cells, with applications in:

Phenotypic screening
Ligand binding assays
Viability/proliferation/cell cycle determination
Biomarker discovery

Download our technical sheet to learn more about the equipment characteristics and applications.

1 BLI System

Quality Assistance is equipped with an Octet RED96e system (Sartorius). Bio-layer interferometry technology can be used to characterise several types of interactions for biotherapeutics.

For more information about this equipment, access the application note related to the “implementation and development of OCTET Red96e BLI Platform” or download the technical sheet.

3 PCR Systems

Quality Assistance's PCR systems include

2 7500 Fast qPCR from ThermoFisher, a powerful platform for labs requiring superior performance and maximum dye versatility.
1 ddPCR QX200 from Bio-Rad providing absolute quantification of target DNA or RNA molecules without the use of standard curves and essential for viral vector analysis. Droplet digital PCR also allows for the analysis of complex samples without any extraction step and with less inhibitory effect and shows a higher sensitivity and precision with a high throughput. Download the technical sheet.

ELISpot assays

ELISpot (enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot) enables visualisation of multiple secretory products from a single responding cell. Thus, the ELISpot provides both qualitative (type of immune protein) and quantitative (number of responding cells) information.