Cascadion SM Assays: IVD Test Kits
Cascadion assays are ready-to-use, manufacturer provided mass spec assay kits for clinical laboratories. Cascadion assays bring together all elements needed for mass spectrometry in clinical diagnostics including internal standard, calibrators, and quality controls.
Why mass spectrometry-based assays?
Many clinical assays rely on traditional immunoassays, which involves engineering highly selective antibodies to bind to the target analytes. This can be a challenge because antibodies may be difficult, or even impossible, to generate for certain analytes. Many antibodies may also not be able to distinguish between small differences in antigens,1 meaning that many molecules are beyond the detection ability of immunoassays. Some immunoassay reagents may also be subject to cross reactivity and interference resulting in lower specificity.2
Cascadion Assays are IVD test kits for clinical diagnostics
Cascadion Assays bring together the convenience of IVD test kits and the accuracy of mass spectrometry in a new generation of IVD assay. Multiple Cascadion Assays can be loaded and ready to run on the Cascadion SM Clinical Analyzer. Samples can be loaded and assayed using random access processing with priority sampling.
Simple implementation with Cascadion Assays
Cascadion Assays are complete IVD test kits designed for ease of implementation and use. The simplicity and speed with which Cascadion Assays can be made ready for use enables assay implementation and verification to be completed in as little as a few days.
“I couldn’t imagine an easier or quicker implementation. All I had to do was to upload a single file containing all assay parameters to the Cascadion system, which then calibrated the assay and performed a QC check to verify data validity, before proceeding with analyzing the patient samples. The entire implementation process took me just half a working day.”
- Dr. Yasmin Wissinger, field application specialist
Thermo Fisher Scientific products are distributed globally so uses, applications, and availability of product in each country depend on local regulatory marketing authorization status.
1. Fuchs, S. M., Krajewski, K., Baker, R. W., Miller, V. L., & Strahl, B. D. (2011). Influence of combinatorial histone modifications on antibody and effector protein recognition. Current biology : CB, 21(1), 53–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2010.11.058
2. Ward, G., Simpson, A., Boscato, L., & Hickman, P.E. (2017). The investigation of interferences in immunoassay. Clinical biochemistry, 50(18), 1306–1311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2017.08.015