Grace Bio-Labs is a global supplier of
pharmaceutical
A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field an ...
, biomedical, and biochemical research products based in
Bend, Oregon, United States. They develop the thin-cast nitrocellulose
biochip (aka:
nitrocellulose slide A nitrocellulose slide (or nitrocellulose film slide) is a glass microscope slide that is coated with nitrocellulose that is used to bind biological material, often protein, for colorimetric and fluorescence detection assays. For this purpose, a ni ...
, nitrocellulose film slide)
[Cytometrically coherent transfer of receptor proteins on microporous membrane. BioTechniques Vol. 11, No 3: 352-361, 1991.][High Definition cell analysis in situ using microporous films. Cell Vision, vol. 2, No 6: 499-590, 1995.] and the modern hybridization and incubation chambers for glass microscope slides.
[McGrath, Charles M.; Grudzien, Jennipher L.; Levine, Allan. Influence of Surface: Volume ratio of Reaction Chambers on Stoichiometry of Antibody-Based Reactions in Situ. Cell Vision, Vol 2, No. 2. 165-169, 1995.]
History
Originally based near
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, and founded by Charles McGrath in 1986, Grace Bio Labs relocated to
Bend, Oregon in May, 1990.
With the aid of
SBIR
The Small Business Innovation Research (or SBIR) program is a U.S. government funding program, coordinated by the Small Business Administration, intended to help certain small businesses conduct research and development (R&D). Funding takes the ...
funding, Grace Bio-Labs was built on two main product types. The first is the incubation chamber for
cell culture and analysis; the second is the ONCYTE Nitrocellulose Film Slide. Their incubation and hybridization chambers are fluid delivery and containment products that increase sensitivity and efficiency in fluorescence and color-based protein and cell analyte assays.
Janitz, M. The HybriWell Sealing System from Grace Bio-Labs. BioCompare, January 1, 03.
The ONCYTE Nitrocellulose microporous film (
nitrocellulose slide A nitrocellulose slide (or nitrocellulose film slide) is a glass microscope slide that is coated with nitrocellulose that is used to bind biological material, often protein, for colorimetric and fluorescence detection assays. For this purpose, a ni ...
) is a biochip platform that captures and protects the 3-dimensional (tertiary) structure of biological material. Originally designed for tissue printing
and
cell lysate
Lysis ( ) is the breaking down of the membrane of a cell, often by viral, enzymic, or osmotic (that is, "lytic" ) mechanisms that compromise its integrity. A fluid containing the contents of lysed cells is called a ''lysate''. In molecular bio ...
capture, the film has flourished in
proteomic
Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. Proteins are vital parts of living organisms, with many functions such as the formation of structural fibers of muscle tissue, enzymatic digestion of food, or synthesis and replication of DNA. In ...
s. It is commonly used in automated and manual
protein microarray
A protein microarray (or protein chip) is a high-throughput method used to track the interactions and activities of proteins, and to determine their function, and determining function on a large scale. Its main advantage lies in the fact that larg ...
s, and continues to increase throughput in proteomics research.
Assay: Protein Microarrays on Nitrocellulose Slides. Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, Vol. 26, No 2. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers: Jan 15, 2006.
Customer Base
Grace Bio-Labs sells to university research laboratories, biotech companies, private researchers and pharmaceutical companies. They mainly distribute to
North America, Western and
Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...
,
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...
, and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
.
See also
*
List of companies based in Oregon
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Companies based in Bend, Oregon
Companies established in 1986
1986 establishments in Oregon
Research support companies