K-One®:
world's most innovative surface chemistry

Our proprietary, innovative and patented K-One® surface chemistry is the culmination of over 10 years of academic research led at Paris-Saclay University, setting a new standard for surface treatment effectiveness.

Why surface chemistry matters?
Diagnostic tests and other in vitro analysis tools generally employ biomolecules (e.g., antibodies) to capture target analytes (e.g., antigens) within a biological sample. These biomolecules, also referred to as ligands, are commonly immobilized on solid surfaces such as nanoparticles, chips, or electrodes, whose optical or electrical properties allow for the detection of the target once captured by the ligand. Mastering the interactions at the surface is crucial, as it ultimately determines the efficiency and reliability of the assay.

Although surface chemistries are commonly utilized for ligand immobilization on chips, their application in nanoparticle bioconjugation requires more resources. As a result, many test developers opt for passive bioconjugation, a standardized, simpler, and less costly method. In this approach, since the surface interactions are not controlled, ligands bind spontaneously and randomly to the surface of the nanoparticles, resulting in suboptimal functionalization. For more complex applications that require the detection of smaller concentrations of analytes, the passive method falls short.

This is where surface chemistry comes into play.
Coating nanoparticles (or chips) creates reactive sites on the surface, enabling ligands to covalently bind through their functional groups and form strong and stable bonds. This results in enhanced control over the exposure, orientation, density, and distribution of the ligands. Ultimately, surface chemistry is used to optimize and enhance key performance parameters of diagnostic assays and biosensors, such as sensitivity, specificity, selectivity, reproducibility, and stability. While this is the theoretical promise, the practical effectiveness of surface chemistries can vary significantly, with most of the current market solutions failing to meet the desired performance requirements. In the subsequent section, we will delve into what distinguishes our K-One® technology.
K-One® technology platform
As highlighted in the previous section, mastering surface interactions is crucial for enhancing the performance of assays and in vitro analyses.

While surface chemistries are essential in this quest, very little innovation has been made in this domain since the 90s, when Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAM), coatings with a thickness of a few nanometers, were developed. Kimialys’ patented chemistry was initially developed in the early 2010s by Kimialys' co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Claude Nogues, and her team while working on gene expression in cell extracts, a highly complex biological medium, using gold SPR sensor chips. The primary goal was to eliminate non-specific bindings that could not be prevented by existing coatings. After successful experiments, this newly developed coating was further refined over a decade across a large variety of use cases to become our current K-One® technology, being the most effective gold surface treatment to detect biomolecules to date.
Diagram depicting ligand binding on gold nanoparticle or sensor chip surfaces. Figure 1 illustrates the scenario before K-One® application, with less structured binding, and Figure 2 shows the improved, organized binding post K-One® application.

Figure 1 - Ligands bind spontaneously and in a random fashion to the surface of gold nanoparticles or chips, resulting in less than 20-30% of the ligands being functional.
Figure 2 - By coating the gold surface with K-One® chemistry, we control the ligands’ exposure, orientation, density, and distribution, resulting in more than 90% of the ligands being functional, while the surface is fully protected from undesired interactions.

Diagnostics

A major challenge for rapid test developers is to achieve sensitivity at the limits of the readers' capacities without compromising the specificity of the assay. Ultimately, the tests need to be highly reproducible, regardless of the complexity of the biological matrix.

High-performance: we enhance sensitivity, specificity, and selectivity, achieving up to a 10x improvement in limit of detection (LoD) compared to the standard methods and drastically reducing the number of false positives

Reproducibility: we ensure repeatable and reliable results for LFA, even when working with complex samples

Methodology: we propose a unique screening and bioconjugation methodology tailored to your biomolecules and assays: FirstTimeRight (FTR) approach

Explore our benchmark study

Drug discovery & development

For biotech and pharmaceutical companies engaged in screening and characterizing biomolecules, immobilizing large ligands, such as antibodies, is a well-established process. However, significant challenges arise when working with certain proteins and smaller ligands, where the stability of ligand attachment on the chip becomes a critical concern. Additionally, background noise can further complicate the task, obscuring data and making it challenging to obtain meaningful insights.

Limitless: we can immobilize any type of ligands on SPR sensor chips

Robustness: biomolecules remain firmly attached even through repeated cycles of SPR analysis

Background noise reduction: we achieve a significant enhancement in Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)

Applications

Products & services

Today, K-One® technology benefits assay developers, pharmaceutical companies and patients all around the world in a wide range of applications:

Lateral Flow Assays and other nanoparticle-based assays

Biomolecule screening & characterization by SPR/SPRi

Kimialys' innovative R&D projects

Our mission is to enable the development of tomorrow's diagnostic tests and in vitro analysis by revolutionizing biodetection. Today, our team leverages a unique expertise in surface functionalization to develop innovative projects, along with top-notch partners.

Explore the new applications made possible by our technology:
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