Dike

Description
When to Use Dike
During an experiment to detect an affinity reaction on biological material, a target molecule is attached to the quartz crystal in the measurement channel. This attachment can be achieved through direct binding or capture by another protein, resulting in a quartz surface sensitive to the molecule being detected.

After this phase, the biological sample under analysis undergoes various operations to initiate the affinity reaction. Some of these operations involve temperature changes; however, since quartz is highly sensitive to temperature, it becomes extremely challenging to distinguish the response due to temperature change from that caused by the affinity reaction. Often, maintaining a constant temperature is not feasible, especially with biological samples.

Dike addresses this issue with its two input channels and capability to work with two quartz crystals. The target molecule is immobilized on a quartz crystal in the measurement channel, while the second quartz crystal in the reference channel is used without immobilizing the target molecule, serving as a reference channel.

The measurement channel is sensitive to both temperature changes and the affinity reaction, whereas the reference channel is sensitive only to temperature changes, as the affinity reaction cannot occur without the immobilized target molecule on its surface.

This approach allows for the detection of the affinity reaction by simply subtracting the response of the reference channel from that of the measurement channel, as both channels respond identically to temperature changes, while only the measurement channel is sensitive to the affinity reaction.

This differential approach uses two channels to detect the affinity reaction and to eliminate the quartz crystal’s response to all other experimental condition variations