Gold Nanoparticles

Gold Sols:

To prepare a high quality (immuno)gold conjugate it is important to have particles with uniform size and highly adsorptive surfaces.
The Aurion Gold Nanoparticles – gold sols – are prepared according to unique production protocols. This provides for sol particles with the same narrow size distribution and adsorption properties as employed in the Conventional Immunogold Reagents.

The preparation of conventional gold reagents is based on gold particles with a diameter suited for direct electron microscopic visualization. Aurion offers a range of Conventional Immunogold Reagents which cover the majority of approaches in transmission and scanning electron microscopy.
Aurion Gold Nanoparticles – Gold Sols – (solutions of high quality unconjugated gold particles) provide opportunities for users to prepare conjugates with primary antibodies, ligands and other binding agents with the same particle characteristics as in the Conventional Immunogold Reagents.

Carboxyl Functionalised:

Aurion Gold Nanoparticles – Carboxyl Functionalized – are polyethylene glycol-carboxyl stabilised gold nanoparticle solutions based on defined particle sizes of 6, 10, 15 and 25nm.

They are prepared using in-house developed production protocols giving the product a narrow size distribution, long term stability and optimal conjugation properties. Biomolecules having primary amines available can be covalently conjugated using EDC/ sulfo-NHS chemistry.

Biomolecules that are too small to be conjugated to Gold Nanoparticles via adsorption can be covalently linked to Carboxyl-functionalized Gold Nanoparticles. Primary amines are present in e.g. the N-terminal side of peptides and in the side group of the amino acid lysine.

The conjugation relies on well known and proven EDC/ sulfo-NHS chemistry.
EDC (N-(3-Dimethylaminopropyl)-N’-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride) is a water soluble carbodiimide which transforms the carboxyl groups on the gold to an active ester in the presence of sulfo-NHS (N-Hydroxy- sulfosucciimide, sodium salt). These sulfo-NHS esters are relatively stable in acidic environment and couple rapidly to the amine(s) in the target molecules.

Storage:

Aurion Gold Nanoparticles – Carboxyl Functionalized & Gold sols have a guaranteed shelf life of 12 months from the date of quality control analysis. The products should be stored at 4-8°C. Freezing is not recommended.