BRAVE PARTNERS. PIONEERS. VISIONARIES.
Is your research or your production limited by your method of particle characterization? Do you want to get much deeper insights into the composition and behavior of your particles? OF2i® is already used by the following partners in their groundbreaking research and for optimized production processes. Take a closer look at these early use cases to get a taste of the potential of OF2i® and get in touch to talk about how we can help you raise the level of your particle analysis.
Gregor Marolt and his research group at the University Ljubljana are developing a screen-printed sensor technology to enable low-budget detection of car tire nanopollutants in surface water. They used BRAVE Analytics’ OF2i® device for comparison and validation of nanoplastic size and concentration measurements at ultra-low concentrations.
Ultra-low concentrations can be measured with OF2i® because it is a high-throughput measuring principle, enabling measurement without the need to concentrate the sample or dilute it.
In the feasibility study two differently filtrated car tire nanosuspensions were compared.
OF2i® was proved feasible for:
Katharina Heider (a researcher at a leading Austrian university) was unable to obtain insights into leaching from polypropylene bottles until she performed OF2i® measurements.
There was no technology available to measure concentrations down to a few particles per milliliter. Before measuring these samples, they must typically be concentrated with other techniques to achieve the detection levels reached by conventional particle measuring technologies. The alternative was using BRAVE Analytics’ OF2i device for online monitoring at high flow throughputs. The sample was pumped through the flow cell and single particles were tracked for analysis.
The BRAVE B-Curious nanoparticle analyzer enables high flow throughputs and detects nanoplastics and microplastics at concentrations down to a few particles per milliliter with single-particle sensitivity.
The online measurement was performed at high throughputs to obtain high statistical relevance. Ultra-pure water samples in different plastic bottles were analyzed after cleaning cycles to determine cleaning efficiency and the results were compared to the reference (20 nm filtrated ultra-pure H2O) in glass bottles.
Detection limit: a few objects per milliliter
Object size range: 50 nm to 3000 nm
Detected substances: PP, PS
The BRAVE B-Continuous online device (including continuous and automated online sample preparation unit) was installed in a pilot plant at the company premises. The homogenization pilot plant consists of two homogenization steps; by applying high pressure the particle size gradually decreases. After the first step particle size is reduced from 3 µm to approximately 0.3 µm. The process analyzer (BRAVE B-Continuous) is connected to the process connection positioned after the first step to measure the efficiency of this homogenization procedure. It continuously monitors PSD distribution and automatically evaluates and collects data such as D-values which are used to evaluate the efficiency of the process. The plug-and-play setup can also be easily moved to other measuring points to monitor the efficiency of other process steps.
Benefits of OF2i® in monitoring total parenteral nutrition products online during the production process:
Professor Tobias Madl at Medical University of Graz, Austria, is researching (dys)regulation and the drug targeting of biomolecular condensate formation.
Distortions in these condensates indicate age-related diseases such as cancers, Alzheimer’s and senile dementia.
Tobias was looking for alternative methods to study condensate size distributions and time evolution and came to BRAVE Analytics for advice.
Without a thorough understanding of the molecular processes involved in early-stage condensate formation it is impossible to plan a strategy to improve existing models and discover how and when drugs are administered most effectively.
Research into these areas greatly benefits from observing and documenting the interactions and dynamic processes involved, something which was not possible using existing technology.
Microscopy, for example, could not resolve the formation processes in the early stages when condensates start to form and proteins start to interact with RNA.
The challenge was to break the sample behavior out of this “black box”.
Professor Madl used the BRAVE B-Curious module for time-resolved sizing to achieve dynamic particle characterization on only 100 µl sample volume. The sample composition was a buffer with 6 µM protein and various amounts (from 0.02 µM to 0.2 µM) of RNA added.
The measuring results clearly showed the kinetics of these LLPS processes (see graphs) and allowed comparison of the formation of particles in the presence of different RNA concentrations.
Benefits of OF2i® in the study of biomolecular condensate formation:
Are you frustrated by the limits of conventional particle characterization methods and what this means for your research? Unlike other light scattering methods, the OF2i® method of particle characterization is particularly suited to:
The BRAVE B-Curious lab device is already at work in research into liquid-liquid phase separation processes. We believe BRAVE B-Curious would be a great asset in other biotechnological and biomedical fields. We look forward to hearing from you if you are interested in getting groundbreaking insights into particle composition and behavior on the following:
As OF2i® delivers continuous and time-resolved results you gain insights into your particle behavior as it happens in one complete and seamless measurement. This continuous recording of your particle kinetics is a huge step forward from making several “snapshot” measurements, with gaps where the sample composition can only be inferred.
Prof. Tobias Madl at the Medical University of Graz has gained valuable knowledge of the behavior of biomolecular condensates during early formation processes for his research into age-related diseases and drug targeting. This study involved measurements of particle size distributions during liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) to evaluate particle formation depending on the available RNA concentration.
The OF2i® method is both sensitive to single particles and also the absence of particles. Take, for example, 20 nanometer filtrated water. OF2i® measurements on nanofiltrated water will detect any particles above 20 nm remaining in the sample, even if the concentration is extremely low, e.g. only a few particles per milliliter. An interesting study in this field was carried out using OF2i® to detect nanoplastic particles leached into filtered water with the results confirming how sensitive OF2i® is when detecting ultra-low concentrations.
BRAVE B-Curious scans approximately 2500 particles per minute and calculates the size of each one. This means the results are more representative than results from nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA is another number-based method but with measurements restricted to around 100 particles per frame). With NTA it is also possible for the user to select the “best looking” frame for measurement, pressing sample through if the view is dominated by one oversized particle, for example, or selecting a frame in which enough particles are registered by the device. This does not happen with OF2i® as the sample is measured as it flows through the flow cell (and is trapped by the laser beam). A high number of particles are evaluated in one measurement.
By the beginning of 2024, BRAVE Analytics will launch its BRAVE B-Continuous online device with OF2i® inside. This online sensor is for:
As BRAVE B-Continuous uses the OF2i® method and provides the same measuring protocols as BRAVE B-Curious, you can easily upscale your research into production and always have compatible results.
BRAVE B-Continuous is already being tested by a global pharmaceutical concern in its pilot plant. This test installation is for monitoring the exact composition of nanoemulsion nutritional admixtures for quality control, process optimization and more efficient compliance with regulations.
Our expertise
As a partner in the MOZART project (MOZART for safe & sustainable by-design metallic coatings & engineered surfaces (RIA)), we received funding from the European Commission as part of the EU Horizon 2020 program.