This implies a UV light source, and UV compatible optics (fused silica) making the instrument more complex, and expensive.

The basic UV-Vis method looks at nucleic acid absorbance at 260nm and compares this to compares this to the absorbance from proteins and other contaminates peaking at 280nm.Ģ60nm is obviously way down in the UV range which means you need a UV capable spectrophotometer. The Lunatic is a UV-Vis spectrophotometer and appears to be marketed against the Nanodrop as a tool for detecting impurities in nucleic acids. A Brief History of UV-Vis for Nucleic Acid Quantification

This is a UV-Vis spectrophotometer which they position against the Nanodrop. In this post, I wanted to delve into “The Lunatic” a little. I get the general impression that their focus is on drug development, which might explain why I’ve not heard of them… They have a portfolio of products covering UV-Vis, scattering, Raman based particle identification, and lab automation. Unchained has a storied history, having acquired Trinean, Freeslate, and AVIA Biosystems. None of which I’ve ever heard of, it’s fascinating to me that companies like this can find relatively healthy niches while I assume having a relatively small market share. Unchained have a large portfolio of instruments.

The company expects to generate $75M in 2021 and has 170 employees.

Unchained was recently acquired for $435 million by Carlyle. And the name alone was enough to make me want to investigate further. Stratec also manufacture flow cells for the Lunatic, a UV-Vis spectrophotometer made by Unchained Labs. Quanterix flow cells are manufactured by ex-Sony DVD processing unit Stratec. I originally came across the Lunatic when investigating Quanterix’s flow cells.

Download lunatic 96