Seahorse Bioscience, Inc., leader in the design and development of instruments for measuring cellular bioenergetics, announced that TheScientist magazine cited their XF96 Extracellular Flux Analyzer as a 2009 Top Ten Innovation.
A panel of scientific experts assembled by TheScientist honored the XF Analyzer as the first instrument to measure the two energy pathways of the cell in a microplate, enabling scientists to generate a comprehensive picture of cellular bioenergetics in real-time. Cellular bioenergetics -the processes by which cells produce and consume energy - is fundamental to the growth, development, function and metabolism of cells. It has emerged as the hot new area of focus in the research of cancer; aging; and metabolic, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases.
"The XF Analyzers are revealing unexpected information about cellular respiration of cells that was not possible to attain before," noted John Lemasters, Director of the Center for Cell Death, Injury and Regeneration at the Medical University of South Carolina. "Insights from these findings are suggesting new strategies to rescue cells and tissues from irreversible toxic and ischemic injury."
The XF Analyzer is playing a key role in the resurgence of interest in the Warburg effect, an 80-year-old discovery about the way cancer cells prefer to burn sugar over fat. Blocking sugar metabolism can cause cancer cells to die, a phenomenon that is fueling a new wave of research into how cancers proliferate and ways to stop them.
"The XF Analyzer allows a scientist to see cancer cell metabolism in real time," stated Dr. Min Wu, Manager of Assay Development at Seahorse and author of several important cancer papers. "Studies utilizing the XF are revealing the metabolic dependencies of cancer cells on sugar and potential therapies. Scientists can determine whether a cancer is addicted to glucose (sugar) or glutamine, and establish which pathway to target for intervention."
Prior to the XF Extracellular Analyzer, scientists relied on 50 year old Clark electrode technology for measuring cell metabolism, a time-consuming technique that provides nominal basic information. Now in minutes, the XF Analyzer measures oxygen consumption--an indicator of mitochondrial respiration--as well as extracellular acidification, a product of glycolysis (sugar burning). With just a small number of cells, investigators can measure the effects of up to four compounds on cellular metabolism, determining the basal oxygen consumption and glycolysis rates; respiratory capacity; mitochondrial dysfunction; fatty acid oxidation, glucose, fatty acid, and amino acid metabolism; uncoupling; ATP turnover; and cell signaling in primary, adherent, tumor and suspension cells, islets, and isolated mitochondria. All important information needed when developing new drugs.
One of TheScientist's judge's Dr. H. Steven Wiley, summed up the XF Analyzer's significance stating: "I want one!'
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