User:Sunlizahunya/sandbox

Company History
Nicoya Lifesciences is a Canadian biotechnology company headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. The company name is inspired by the blue zone in Nicoya, Costa Rica. It was founded in 2010 and primarily produces surface plasmon resonance (SPR) instruments powered by digital microfluidics. It is the recipient of the Life Science Company of the Year by industry association Life Sciences Ontario.

The company was originally established to democratize access to surface plasmon resonance instruments with an affordable, benchtop, localized surface plasmon resonance instrument, OpenSPR. OpenSPR was successfully adopted by academia as a way for students to conduct research with SPR, a powerful but otherwise unaffordable and overly complex technique. The company added an automated version of OpenSPR, the OpenSPR-XT in 2016. There are approximately 500 OpenSPR instruments in the field and that continues to grow.

Recent Developments
In 2020, Nicoya announced a novel innovation, Alto. For the first time, Alto combines digital microfluidics with SPR to accelerate researchers in drug discovery. The platform works with drastically reduced sample volumes, programmed fluidic operations and novel capabilities. Specifically designed for Biologics and Biopharmaceuticals, Alto can analyze the interactions of drug candidates with their targets even in crude sample media. The fluidics and sensors are disposable, eliminating the need for instrument maintenance.

The platform is also versatile with potential applications in diagnostics. Currently, partnerships exist with leading drug discovery and diagnostics companies.