Nanosys, Inc. and Bruker Daltonics Inc. today announced that they have entered into a broad R&D collaboration and distribution agreement for Nanosys' nanotechnology-enabled matrix-free target plates for use primarily with Bruker's FLEX-series of laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometers.

These Nanosys plates are known as Capture and Analyze NALDI chips.

NALDI chips enable significant sensitivity, throughput and ease-of-use benefits for the analysis of small molecules such as drug compounds, small peptides, natural products, pesticides or many other low mass molecules that previously were difficult to analyze with the ease and throughput of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometers. Today, these molecules typically have to be analyzed with LC-MS (liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry), which is time-consuming, less robust and requires more operator training.

NALDI chips combined with TOF or TOF/TOF mass spectrometers have the potential to revolutionize small molecule mass spectrometry in many important areas of life science or chemical research and analysis. Potential applications areas include chemistry and molecular biology research, molecular diagnostics and molecular imaging research, pharma/biotech and other industrial research and analysis, as well as many applied fields, such as food analysis, environmental analysis, toxicology, etc.

Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, the companies will collaborate closely on R&D related to the NALDI chips, as well as on applications and assay development. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Nanosys will manufacture and exclusively supply NALDI chips for Bruker LDI-TOF mass spectrometers, while Billerica, Mass.-based Bruker Daltonics will market and distribute the innovative NALDI chips worldwide. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Source: BusinessWire.com