Quanterix Upgrades Simoa Instruments, Preparing for 2016 IPO
November 25, 2015 | Quanterix, the Lexington, Mass.-based creator of a high-throughput protein analysis instrument, is overhauling its hardware and software as it prepares for a more commercial stage in its development. The company’s Simoa instruments have been in early customers’ labs for around 18 months, giving Quanterix a first look at how they will hold up under continuous use and what features users will be looking for in the future.
The Simoa is built to detect proteins at minute concentrations in blood or other biological samples. It uses the same combination of targeted antibodies and fluorescent markers as an ELISA experiment, a process that has been common since the 1970s. In the Simoa, however, hundreds of thousands of these reactions can be performed and measured in parallel, inside microwells etched into disc-shaped cartridges.