4165/JN/24 - Mass Photometer

The University of Sheffield's School of Biosciences with funding from BBSRC is looking to procure a Mass Photometer. We require new instrumentation that will benefit research across the faculties of Science, Health and Engineering at UoS, falling into three broad categories: 1) Biomolecular interactions of nucleic acids (e.g binding of RNA to chromatin regulators); 2) Protein Biochemistry and macromolecular assembly (e.g multimeric assembly of kinesin motors); 3) Translational Biomolecules (e.g detection of impurities during RNA therapeutic manufacturing). In order to guarantee the versatility needed for our different needs, the instrumentation must be able to measure changes in mass across a range of different biomolecular types. Many potential users are engaged in single- molecule research, and therefore the equipment must be based on single molecule technologies to provide information on all sub-populations of a sample rather than an ensemble-averaged sample. We also need the capability to measure samples in solution, and without the need for fluorescent or other types of label. As the equipment is being hosted in an accessible location and will be open to all users, the equipment must be easy to use and able to provide data in common formats very quickly.