January 19th 2021: X4 launching
AWSensors is pleased to announce the launching of its new Advanced Multichannel QCMD system, the X4 Instrument, which allows the users to boost their productivity.
Learn more about this new instrument in its landing page.
October 15th 2020: AWSensors is pleased to invite you to take a look to its Technology Note entitled “QCMD in Lipid Research”.
QCMD is a label-free surface-analytical technique based on a quartz resonator excited to oscillate at its resonance frequency on one or more overtones. Resonators can have various coatings: gold (Au), silica (SiO2), titania (TiO2), etc. It works in aqueous media or organic solvents and is therefore widely used for studying solid/liquid interfaces. At each overtone, QCMD measures changes in the resonance frequency and energy dissipation due to the processes occurring at the resonator surface. Examples of such processes include formation of a film or changes in the geometrical or physical properties of the film.
The key feature that makes QCMD useful in lipid research is its ability to distinguish between different geometries and topologies of lipidic assemblies at interfaces, for example, homogenous solid-supported bilayers or monolayers vs. adsorbed liposomes or other structures (such as cubosomes) without relying on fluorescent or deuterated labels but by relying on the combination of the frequency and dissipation.
Lipid-related QCMD work can be grouped into several topics, with a total of more than a thousand publications:
• Studies focusing on the interactions between lipids and surfaces.
• Studies focusing on the properties of the lipids, such as their phase behavior, adsorbed liposome deformation, etc.
• Studies examining interactions between lipids and membrane-binding proteins, peptides or viruses. Particularly interesting is that QCMD offers a way to study clustering of membrane-bound proteins.
• Studies focusing on the interactions of lipids with polymers or with nanoparticles.
Continue reading by downloading the full Technology Note (below) …
You can download the full Note in pdf format through this link. A list of our Technology Notes can be found on our Technology Web Page.
September 15th 2020: AWSensors is pleased to invite you to take a look to its new Technology Note entitled “Tracking Recovery Technology Note”.
Use of the AWSensors X1 Instrument Tracking Recover feature to monitor overtones frequency and dissipation shifts of air-to-liquid medium exchanges onto 5 MHz QCM sensors.
The Tracking Recovery feature included in AWSensors X1 platform allows the user to monitor large and fast frequency shifts in QCM (Quartz Crystal Microbalance) admittance spectrum. These sudden modifications in the sensor response are common is some applications where dramatical changes in the viscoelastic properties of the sensor surrounding medium take place.
This technical note illustrates the utility of tracking recovery feature to characterize an air-to-liquid medium exchange. According to Kanazawa and Gordon theory predictions [1], a complex frequency shift is expected in the sensor electromechanical response when the semi-infinite medium placed over the QCM’s top electrode is replaced by other semi-infinite medium. This shift will depend on the viscosity and density properties of the final medium. Following, Kanazawa-Gordon equation is presented for both the frequency (Eq. 1) and the half-bandwidth (Eq. 2) shifts.
Continue reading by downloading the full Technology Note (below) …
You can download the full Note in pdf format through this link. A list of our Technology Notes can be found on our Technology Web Page.
July 3rd 2020: AWSensors is pleased to invite you to take a look to the Biosensor Application Note entitled “Acoustic Biosensor“.
An immunosensor application for determination of carbaryl pesticide was developed by using AWS A20 research platform and AWS F20 Fluidic System. Carbaryl was chosen as the model analyte. Two kinds of acoustic sensors were employed: AWS HFF-QCM sensors (50 MHz and 100 MHz) and Love-SAW sensors with appropriate cells. The AWS A20 platform allowed monitoring phase-shift changes at constant frequency as a function of the sensor surface mass changes.
Sensor functionalization: Carbaryl hapten conjugate was covalently immobilized by means of Self Assembled Monolayer (SAM).
Immunoassay format: The chosen competitive immunoassay was a binding-inhibition test based on conjugate-coated format. Carbaryl analyte competes against the immobilized hapten-conjugate for Monoclonal Antibodies.
Carbaryl detection: Samples were injected onto the sensors’ surfaces. AWS software allowed controlling sample injection and fluidics. Furthermore, the employed platform allowed performing the measurements at a constant temperature of 25°C ± 0.05°C.
Since analyte inhibits antibody binding to its respective immobilized conjugates, increasing concentrations of analyte are detected by a change in the increment of the phase-shift of the sensor. The following figures present a representative assay cycle selected from a continuous monitoring in a carbaryl determination, for 100 MHz HFF QCM and 120MHz Love Wave Sensors.
Continue reading by downloading the full Application Note (below) …
You can download the full Application Note in pdf file from this link or download it from our Applications Web Page where you can find this and the rest of our Application and Technology Notes.
May 15h 2020: AWSensors is pleased to announce the release of its new Application Note on Supported Lipid Bilayers (SLB) entitled “Supported Lipid Bilayer formation followed at low- and high-fundamental frequencies“.
The process of supported lipid bilayer (SLB) formation from adsorbed liposomes is a robust biophysical system that is used in laboratories all over the world. Here, it is used to test AWSensors Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation measurement (QCMD) equipment and high fundamental frequency QCMD sensors. It is shown that the AWSensors QCMD system correctly and quantitatiely reports the frequency and dissipation changes associated with the SLB formation on high- and low-fundamental frequency SiO2-coated sensors. Some differences between the two types of sensors are highlighted. 
Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation measurement, or QCMD, has become a popular technique for research in such disparate fields as material science, biophysics, electrochemistry, and immunosensing. [1] One of the reasons for the wide range of applicability and popularity of QCMD is its ability to provide information about molecular organization (topology and geometry) at solid/liquid interfaces. Specifically, it was shown how the combination of frequency and dissipation could distinguish between different surface-immobilized lipidic assemblies: adsorbed liposomes and supported lipid bilayers (SLBs; Figure 1).[2] This allowed the process of SLB formation from liposomes on SiO2-coated QCMD sensors to be followed in situ.[2] Subsequent studies further showed how the combination of frequency and dissipation measurements on various overtones could be used to study adsorbed liposome deformation [3,4] and detect mutations through the analysis of DNA conformation and length. [5, 6]
Continue reading downloading the full Application Note (below) …
You can download the full Application Note in pdf file from this link or download it from our Applications Web Page where you can find this and the rest of our Application and Technology Notes.
Aug 25th 2015
Spanish Parliament starts to debate today the public budget for the next year. So that, we would like to review what are the plans to invest in research and innovation. According to the budget for the Secretary of Innovation, bioeconomy will be one of the priorities for the Spanish Government in 2016.
The bioeconomy definition according to the EFIB (European Forum for the Bioeconomy) is the following:
Bioeconomy encompasses the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into food, feed, bio-based products and bioenergy via innovative and efficient technologies.
AWSensors tech has important applications in bioeconomy such as environmental monitoring, secure food and water, bioenergy or biomaterials. EU is promoting and funding projects in these fields in order to make the transition to a more resource efficient society and the Spanish Government is following this policy too.
Spanish government plans to invest 1,765 million euros in direct aid for innovation projects and 2,446 million euros for loans to enterprises. The resources allocated to direct aid will increase up to 15 per cent over this year and loans will decrease to 9 per cent. The government will give priority to areas considered most in need of development in science and technology such as Andalucia, Extremadura, Canarias, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia, Galicia and Asturias. Among the actions to be undertaken in these regions, Bioeconomy will be boosted in the agri-food, biomass, bioenergy and bioproducts fields.
Furthermore, the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), the main driver of innovation in Spain, will have 30 million euros more for direct aid, 35.7% more than the previous year. The Spanish High Council Scientific Research (CSIC) will have 467 million euros next year and the Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII), 165 millions.
In spite of this state budget for 2016, Spain is still the 17th european country in gross domestic expenditure on R&D according to Eurostat.
