Lyophilization and lyophilized bead production
ZP is an ISO13485 contract developer and manufacturer, among our manufacturing processes is lyophilization and lyophilized bead production.
Among the ZP tool kit is our manufacturing capability to deposit reagent onto surfaces, but for many applications including IVDs and microfluidics it may be better to not deposit the reagents onto a surface but rather have the assay reagents constrained within a lyophilized bead. These beads can subsequently be deposited within chambers and microfluidic channels. When the liquid sample contacts the beads there is a rapid rehydration of the bead and the reagents are rapidly released into the sample; upon release the chemical. biochemical and biological assay can start.
ZP Single-Assay Lyophilized Beads
A ZP Single-Assay beads are liquid droplets which are lyophilized as a bead with a controlled diameter/volume. ZP has several off-the-shelf formulations, as reflected through our commercial biosensors. It is common that beads are custom formulated for a single assay where the exact formulation depends on the sample, type, the analyte of interest, the analyte concentration etc. When rehydrated by the sample the beads rapidly release their ingredients into the sample and the assay can be read using spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques.