Technology for Polarization Measurement

Hinds Instruments names Bio-Logic Science Instruments Exclusive Worldwide Distributor for new CD MicroPlate Reader product

July 18th, 2017

Hinds develops circular dichroism instrument for high throughput screening of chiral pharmaceuticals and strikes distribution deal with Bio-Logic Science Instruments.


Hillsboro, Oregon – Hinds Instruments, a leading global supplier of photoelastic modulators (PEMs) and PEM-based instrumentation, and Bio-Logic Science Instruments today announced that they have entered into an exclusive marketing and sales distribution agreement covering Hinds’ new CD Microplate Reader product. This multi-year agreement combines Hinds’ strength in polarization, chiral technology, and systems development with Bio-Logic’s global distribution reach in the fields of CD spectroscopy and rapid kinetics.

Leveraging more than 40 years of experience designing PEMs for the CD and VCD spectroscopy market, Hinds scientists and engineers developed the product in response to a broad market demand for a CD spectroscopy system capable of reading circular dichroism directly from standard lab micro wellplates. The first commercially-available system of its kind, Hinds’ CD MicroPlate Reader truly delivers on the promise of high-throughput screening for chiral pharmaceuticals.

According to Hinds’ marketing manager Linda Hirschy, “The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing a change in requirements for drugs that exhibit chirality. Chirality is a property of many organic molecules that exist in at least two forms that are mirror images (enantiomers) of each other. Drug interactions for the two enantiomers in biological systems can be thought of as a left and right hand both trying to fit into a left glove. The left hand will be much more successful. In this way, usually only one of the two chiral enantiomers of a drug is therapeutically active. The other may be ineffective or even harmful.”

In nature only the active one of the enantiomers is produced, but in a laboratory or chemical plant it is likely that a mixture of the two will form. As more is understood about the importance of the chiral properties of drugs, the FDA and other agencies have increasingly required that drug companies fully separate, characterize and control the enantiomers they sell. But differences between the two enantiomers are chemically subtle, so separation and characterization are difficult. This has led to a requirement for more analytical methods that can differentiate between enantiomers and help pharmaceutical companies to provide quality control.

While CD instruments have been available for many years, they are all designed to measure the CD of a single reaction product at a time. Hinds’ customers Professor Bart Kahr, New York University and Professor Eric Anslyn, University of Texas at Austin saw the need for a circular dichroism (CD) instrument that could rapidly assess chiral reaction products. In a 2014 article published in The Royal Society of Chemistry, they described a system that would read all 96 wells in a microplate. Kahr and Anslyn then contacted Hinds Senior Scientist Bob Wang about submitting a joint NSF grant application to build such a system. Finally, Anslyn contracted with Hinds to build a system for Anslyn’s lab at the University of Texas. The Hinds CD Microplate Reader is revolutionary in its ability to rapidly “read” the enantiomeric composition of 96 reaction products in a standard laboratory micro-well plate. It can measure the enantiomeric excess of 96 reaction products in less than 2 minutes.

According to Hinds’ senior scientist Bob Wang, “This CD reader eliminates the time-consuming process of transferring the contents from each well of the micro-well plate into a cuvette, and cleaning between each measurement, as is necessary when using conventional CD spectrometers. Furthermore, by avoiding chromatography completely, this instrument is well suited to identifying ‘hits’ quickly using high throughput screening.”

“With this new global distribution agreement, we are very pleased to combine Hinds Instruments’ strength in polarization and chiral technology with our worldwide market reach in the pharmaceutical research industry. We are teaming up with a very strong partner for the global launch of this product. We are looking forward to working together to introduce this exciting new product to researchers around the world who need high throughput CD measurements for chiral pharmaceuticals”, says François Goy, President and Owner of Bio-Logic Science Instruments, Seyssinet, France. Bio-Logic will be the sole distributor for Hinds’ CD Microplate reader worldwide.


Hinds Instruments, Inc. is the world leader in developing and supplying polarization modulation technology for a broad range of applications. With 40+ years of polarization modulation experience, Hinds Instruments PEM-based solutions are proven tools for laboratory and research applications. Hinds’ family of products includes modulators, Stokes polarimeters, Mueller matrix polarimeters, MOKE measurement systems, Exicor® birefringence measurement systems and now circular dichroism measurement systems. For more information, contact www.hindsinstruments.com.

Bio-Logic Science Instruments is a leading designer and manufacturer of high performance laboratory research instrumentation and software. 30+ years of experience in the development and distribution of rapid kinetics and spectroscopy research instrumentation provides Bio-Logic with deep market insights as well as product and application knowledge. Today, that commitment continues through the market leading MOS-500 Circular Dichroism spectrometer and the latest advances in micro-volume stopped-flow mixers. Product-lines from Bio-Logic also include electrochemistry research potentiostats with built-in Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), Frequency Response Analyzers for materials analysis, Battery Cyclers and Scanning Electrochemical Microscopes. For more information, contact www.bio-logic.net.

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