Refeyn Blog

Browse through our library of informative articles about mass photometry, new product announcements, company updates from Refeyn and much more. 
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AAV sample characterization is a critical step in research, development and manufacturing processes of gene therapies involving these viral vectors (Figure 1). There are several analytical approaches available to assess critical quality attributes (CQAs) for AAV samples, such as capsid content (empty/full ratios) and titer.
Assessing AAV capsid content is critical for AAV research, development and production. There is an urgent need for reliable techniques that can characterize AAV samples efficiently and accurately, particularly when AAV sample loading shows a high level of heterogeneity [1].
New mass photometer characterizes AAV sample purity and empty/full ratio, with less manual operation time and greater reproducibility
In the article Critical Calibration of Mass Photometry for Higher-Mass Samples Such as Adeno-Associated Virus Vectors (published this month in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences [1]), the authors describe an issue they encountered with their Refeyn OneMP Mass Photometer.
The release of the TwoMPAuto in early 2022 represents an important improvement in the capabilities of Refeyn’s mass photometers. And like with any new product, there are some questions that frequently come up about how it works and what it can do.
The study of protein-DNA interactions feeds into understanding the mechanisms of DNA replication, repair and transcription, gene expression, and the packaging of chromosomal DNA [1]. Now, a relatively new way to study protein-DNA interactions is entering the analytical toolbox: mass photometry.
The biologically important membrane proteins remain a challenging target for structural and functional studies, despite recent advances in biomolecular characterization capabilities. This is due to intrinsic difficulties in expressing, purifying and preparing membrane proteins for analysis while preserving their structure and activity.
Q&A with Refeyn Travel Grant winner Kevin Chen 
You can never get enough time on an electron microscope. To make the most of the time you do have, you need to streamline the cryo-EM workflow. Negative stain EM (NS-EM) can help you optimize buffer conditions and assess sample quality before you move to the low-temperature microscope, but it’s a time-consuming, expensive technique. What you need is a cost-effective method that can speed up your analysis. The TwoMP, a bioanalytical tool that uses mass photometry to characterize biomolecules, can help you optimize your sample analysis without breaking the bank (or project budget). In this blog, Refeyn product manager Cathryn Langley, DPhil, tells us all about it.  
Ask any AAV researcher – figuring out how many of your capsids are filled and how many are empty is a long and laborious process. There is a clear need to overcome the drawbacks of the current gold-standard analytical methods so users can rapidly and cost-effectively characterise AAVs.
Mass photometry has reached a new landmark, as the world’s first mass photometry-themed scientific meeting took place on June 14th at the University of Oxford.
Four years ago, at the Biophysical Society’s Annual Meeting 2018 in San Francisco, an early mass photometer made its first public appearance, when a University of Oxford team led by Philipp Kukura and Daniel Cole brought a prototype to demonstrate live in the BPS exhibition hall.