Acoerela has developed Conjugated Oligoelectrolytes (COEs), the world's first full bilayer-spanning lipophilic dyes that are water-soluble and exhibit high specificity for lipid membranes, significantly reducing false positives in biological assays. These dyes enable accurate and rapid fluorescence detection in applications such as extracellular vesicle research and tumor tracking, streamlining processes that traditionally require lengthy and complex procedures.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Traditional lipophilic dyes used in biological assays often require organic solvents for reconstitution, which can introduce artifacts and false positives due to poor biocompatibility and nanoaggregate formation. Current dyes also suffer from high false positivity rates and can require lengthy, multi-step processing, hindering rapid and accurate fluorescence detection.
Solution
Acoerela has developed Conjugated Oligoelectrolytes (COEs), a novel class of water-soluble, fluorogenic lipophilic dyes designed to span the full lipid bilayer. These dyes exhibit high specificity for lipid membranes, significantly reducing false positives in biological assays. The fluorogenic nature of Acoerela dyes results in a significant increase in fluorescence only when bound to their target, enabling a "light on" mechanism. This allows for accurate and rapid fluorescence detection in applications such as extracellular vesicle research and tumor tracking, streamlining processes that traditionally require lengthy and complex procedures. The dyes are easily incorporated into research workflows due to their high water solubility, eliminating the need for organic solvents and reducing the risk of artifacts.
Target Audience
The primary customers are researchers in academia and industry conducting studies in areas such as extracellular vesicles, drug delivery, and membrane biology, as well as clinical diagnostics.
Features
- Full bilayer-spanning lipophilic dyes with high specificity for lipid membranes
- Water-soluble formulation, eliminating the need for organic solvents and reducing artifacts
- Fluorogenic properties: high quantum yield (>25%) with significant fluorescence increase upon target binding
- Diverse color options available, enabling multiplexing possibilities
- Accuracy >95%, significantly reducing false positivity compared to current dyes with >70% false positivity rate
- Simplified one-step processing, reducing time to results to approximately 1 hour compared to >8 hours for current dyes