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CEOverture...
The buzz is growing in the research community about the ability to immobilize a molecule on a surface using fluorous techniques, helped in no small part by two recent publications that further demonstrate the value of such an approach. Read on to find out more about those publications, plus the latest information on fluorous separation media for proteomics and high throughput synthesis applications. If you’re making, purifying or immobilizing molecules- this newsletter has something for you, and FTI has the tools you need to do it yourself (“You can do it, we can help” was already taken by a firm with a much larger marketing budget, but same idea).
Cheers,
Phil
Philip E. Yeske
President & CEO
Fluorous Immobilization for Microarrays
In 2005, Prof. Nicola Pohl reported using fluorous techniques in the synthesis, purification, and immobilization of fluorous tagged carbohydrates to form microarrays. Subsequently, FTI has made fluorous modified slides commercially available and in the last month, two online publications have been published which expand the use of fluorous modified slides to the formation of small molecule microarrays.
The first report,from Prof. David Spring and Rebecca Nicholson at the University of Cambridge and Mark Ladlow of GlaxoSmithKline, describes initial results in forming small molecule microarrays. Fluorous tagged biotin was spotted on the slides then detected using fluorescently labeled avidin. Excellent spot morphology and signal-to-noise ratios were reported as key attributes of the approach. The second report, from Prof. Stuart Schreiber and co-workers at the Broad Institute, validated fluorous small molecule microarrays (FSMM) for the screening of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors. These researchers used three assays (FSMM, biochemical activity, and surface plasmon resonance) in combination with three different HDACs. They found consistent results across each of the platforms and enzymes.
Additional details about each of these reports can be found in two F-Blog posts. Fluorous based microarrays are proving to be an excellent non-covalent, bio-orthogonal immobilization technique for microarray formation providing simpler workflows with less washing, low non-specific binding, and excellent signal-to-noise ratios.
FTI can provide you with the same fluorous modified slides used in both of these publications in either plain or barcoded versions. Please contact us should you have any questions or require more information.
Fluorous Sorbents for Proteomics & Metabolomics
Since the publication of fluorous techniques in proteomics by Eric Peters and colleagues, an increasing number of researchers have used fluorous tagging and enrichment strategies for proteomics applications. The same selectivity and separation advantages seen in synthesis can be realized in proteomics and metabolomics applications to simplify sample subsets to the molecules of interest. For example, Prof. Gary Siuzdak’s group at the Scripps Research Institute reported utilizing a fluorous alcohol to tag, enrich, and analyze metabolites from serum.
The enrichment of the fluorous tagged species in a sample from all non-tagged species is usually conducted using our 5 micron FluoroFlash® silica gel. Currently this sorbent is available in bulk, two different sizes of pipette tips, plus preformatted microLC trap cartridges. Moreover, we would be happy to incorporate FluoroFlash® silica gel into your preferred format. If you would like to take advantage of the selectivity and ease of fluorous enrichment in your studies, please do not hesitate to contact us.
New F-SPE Developments in High-Throughput Synthesis
F-SPE is an important fluorous separation technique which has been widely applied to solution-phase synthesis and purification of various molecular classes, including small molecules, peptides, oligonucleotides, and carbohydrates. For quick separation of a single reaction, FTI supplies F-SPE cartridges ranging from 2g to 20g, as well as bulk FluoroFlash® silica gel for larger scale F-SPE. In addition, cartridges used on automated chromatography systems are also commercially available. The unique orthogonality and generality of F-SPE separations compared to other methods, however, also makes it an ideal candidate for high-throughput and parallel synthesis settings. As part of our continuing efforts to improve our technology and support the broad-based needs of life science researchers, FTI has developed a number of products and methods for those of you interested in such applications.
Newly introduced by FTI are 24, 48, 96-well F-SPE plates (with 3g, 1g, 0.5g FluoroFlash® silica in gel each well, respectively) for parallel purification 
and high throughput purification of fluorous reaction mixtures. These separations use either vacuum or positive pressure and procedures have been developed using commercially available manifolds. Other fluorous solid phase extraction options include gravity-driven plate-to-plate F-SPE using larger particle size FluoroFlash® silica and automated serial F-SPE using a RapidTrace® workstation. All of these options are used in conjunction with our fluorous reagents, tags, and scavengers to provide fast and effective purifications to increase your productivity.
For details on any of these protocols, along with relevant peer-reviewed references, please visit our application notes library or contact us directly and we will gladly assist you.
F-Blog Update!
We thank everyone that has joined the F-Blog community by registering with us. For those still undecided about whether to register or not, a 20% discount on your next order will be applied to those that register with F-Blog in the next month. As an added bonus, if you place an order before December 31, we will increase the discount to 25%. Remember that registering with F-Blog allows you to comment on any of the posts cited, but registration is not required to view the posts.
Since its introduction earlier in the summer, F-Blog has been our preferred way to rapidly publish reports on the latest fluorous literature and events. The highlight of the summer came when Dr. Marvin Yu posted a series of reports live from ISoFT '07. Current posts include topics such as fluorous peptides, fluorous solvent tuning, and using fluorous techniques in total synthesis. We'll continue to post on new and exciting uses of fluorous techniques and fluorous related events, and we hope to incorporate some new features for the fall. Stay tuned!
Anytime you are on the web and need further information, just click on the "Contact Us" button located on the top corner of each page. Here you will find phone, fax and email contact information.