A first for the eProtein Discovery™ System at the University of Southampton

Nuclera was at the University of Southampton on January 9th to install our eProtein Discovery™ System. It is Nuclera’s first system installation, therefore generating much excitement for both company and university alike.  Haren Arulanantham (Global Applications Manager, Nuclera) and Chiara Gandini (Field Application Scientist in BD & Sales, Nuclera) were on hand to assist Professor Hywel Morgan (University of Southampton, School of Electronics and Computer Science to guide him through his first days with his lab’s newly acquired eProtein Discovery™ System.

 

Professor Morgan joined Nuclera as a scientific advisor in 2018. He is Professor of Bioelectronics at the University of Southampton and specializes in bio-sensors, nanotechnology and lab-on-a-chip technologies. Professor Morgan is also the co-founder of the medical device companies, Verso Biosense and iFAST Diagnostics.

 

The eProtein Discovery™ System has already been in Professor Hywel Morgan’s hands at the University of Southampton in previous versions, firstly to demonstrate proof of concept back in October 2020.

October 2020 – Prof Hywel pipetting reagents into a nascent version of the eProtein Discovery, the ‘Big Blue’.

 

In August 2022, Nuclera provided Professor Morgan with the eProtein Discovery System as part of Nuclera’s early adopter trial which was used to gather valuable customer feedback as part of product development.

August 2022 – first prototype demonstration at the University of Southampton

 

Following the success of the trial in late 2022, the University of Southampton proceeded with acquiring the eProtein Discovery System on a permanent basis which will be used to explore proteins such as the COVID Ace2 inhibitor protein among others. Their previous attempts to express COVID Ace2 inhibitor using conventional techniques had proved unsuccessful, this was one of the reasons why the lab decided to use eProtein Discovery in the 2022 early adopter trial resulting in them being able to express this protein for the first time. Ultimately this success led to the lab committing to purchasing the fully launched system.

January 2023 – first deployment of the commercially launched version of eProtein Discovery System in Professor Morgan’s lab, University of Southampton

 

Professor Hywel commented “[the installation] went well and I must congratulate everyone on the very significant improvement to the machine!”

 

“The eProtein Discovery by Nuclera leverages AI and microfluidics for rapid optimization of recombinant protein production, revolutionizing current pipelines.”, remarked Associate Professor Franklin Nobrega who will also be working with the eProtein Discovery System at the University of Southampton.

 

The installation of the eProtein Discovery at the University of Southampton is a culmination of a close development partnership which will continue with ongoing support from Nuclera on making sure that Professor Morgan’s research group benefits from all that Nuclera’s system offers.

 

“Nuclera is excited to be delivering the eProtein Discovery System as a finished product to the University of Southampton, the first customer delivery of its kind!”,  said Dr Michael Chen, Nuclera’s CEO. “We want to thank the lab of Professor Morgan for being part of the development journey, his input and that of his colleagues has been invaluable to make our system a reality for him and other customers that require protein prototyping.”