About Sword – Sword

Precision medicine demands assay performance

Sword’s platform equips scientists with more robust and reliable data, more rapidly, so they can advance important research and development faster.

Opportunities spurred by the rise of personalized medicine are abundant, but in order for pharmaceutical and biotech organizations to truly drive change in this area, they need assays that with greater sensitivity and accuracy than ever before. With more assay performance, they can detect disease in healthy patients at very low levels, helping to drive earlier intervention for better outcomes.

Via our detection technology, Sword creates a new lower LLOQ for quantitation – and can develop a high-performance assay, optimized for your sample, in just 20 days.

How It Works

Sword’s platform uses a patented technology involving resonance Raman. First the Sword molecule interacts with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) conjugated to the detection antibody or streptavidin. This converts the molecule to a Raman-active state. When the active molecule is hit by a light photon from the plate-reader light source, it resonates. A second light photon is then reflected by the resonating molecule. This reaction repeated multiple times results in a strong signal from a relatively low abundance of HRP, giving the researcher improved sensitivity and precision at the low end.

This enhances performance of the assays in 2 ways:

Superior enzyme/substrate interaction at low concentrations produces more Resonance-Raman active molecules.
High sensitivity, consistently low CVs and less noise relative to traditional ELISA detection chemistries.

Your Assay, Your Matrix, Your Way

Sword’s technology can be applied to a range of routine ELISAs to significantly improve sensitivity and precision, using standard fluorescent microplate readers and immunoassay chemistry.

After the initial Sword SWIFT performance assessment, the Sword team will perform sample optimization, using Sword blockers and diluents to optimize sensitivity in your matrix with review of spike recovery, linearity, accuracy, and precision (CV). This entire process occurs in just 14 days.

Once proven that the optimized assay meets your success criteria, the Sword team will finalize your assay and either transfer it to your own facility—complete with an on-site performance verification—or run the assay for you via our own Sword Testing Services.