RheoSense, Inc. (San Ramon, CA) - is proud to announce the delivery of an m-VROC™ small sample laboratory viscometer to a cutting-edge, Cambridge (MA, USA) based, Pharmaceutical company.
The company is focused on RNA therapeutics, one of the fastest growing therapeutic classes in the pharmaceutical market. Their goal is to develop a new drug modality which could treat a wide series of disease conditions that are currently understood to be undrugable. RNA is a genetic material for a range of diseases and plays a key role in human gene expression making this exciting new approach a platform that could lead to the discovery of countless new and more effective drugs. 
The company purchased m-VROC™ to characterize proteins and to obtain viscosity measurement for use in calculating particle sizes with dynamic light scattering measurement. They also plan to use m-VROC™ to study RNA breakdown due to temperature.
Requiring very small samples (<50 µL) and with a sealed sample delivery system formation of films or addition of contaminants is prevented.
According to Pat Riley, RheoSense Sales Director “The customer purchased m-VROC™ to characterize samples across a wide range of temperatures and shear rates with the very limited volumes they had available. This is regularly only about 50 µL and sometimes as little as 20-30 µL. Ease of use is also important as a number of researchers would be using the system and a long learning curve would not be practical.”
The patented VROC™ technology is based on a combination of MEMS (micro-electrical mechanical systems) and microfluidics. The sensor is comprised of a micro-scale precision glass flow channel with MEMS pressure transducers installed within the base. The system measures the pressure drop from the inlet to the outlet as the sample fluid flows through the channel at a controlled rate. The geometry of the flow channel and the pressure drop provide the shear stress and the shear rate is controlled by a syringe pump, quickly providing highly accurate viscosity data with minimal sample for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids.
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