About Covaris

At Covaris, our mission is to leverage our enabling Adaptive Focused Acoustics™ (AFA) technology to provide premier sample preparation instruments and solutions to the analytical and life sciences industry. Founded in 1999, Covaris is a privately held technology company headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts, USA. The company was built upon its team's in-depth knowledge of fields ranging from acoustic physics and mechanical engineering to biophysics and molecular biology.

The Covaris technological foundation is based on it's proprietary and patented AFA technology. The AFA technology enables a vast array of non-contact, isothermal processes to be developed, for use in a broad range of applications in Genomics, Proteomics, Cell Biolog,y and Drug Discovery research. In many cases, the ability to impart both thermal and non-contact control of application processes could not be obtained prior to the development AFA technology. This gives the Covaris AFA Technology a truly sustainable competitive advantages.

Background

Acoustic energy at both sonic and ultrasonic frequencies has been utilized for many years for a variety of diagnostic, therapeutic, and research purposes. Some uses of sonic or acoustic energy in materials processing include "sonication". This is an unrefined process of mechanical disruption typically involving the direct immersion of an unfocused ultrasound source into a fluid suspension of the material being treated. The sonic energy often does not reach the target in an effective dose because the energy is scattered, absorbed, and/or not properly aligned with the target. One result of this unrefined, unfocused energy is undesired heat generation which can impact sample quality (causing degradation for example). Another issue is recovery, as the unrefined process can cause sample loss due to lack of experimental control. Finally, this approach is prone to cross-contamination.

While there are also specific clinical examples of the utilization of therapeutic and diagnostic ultrasound (e.g., fetal imaging), ultrasonics has heretofore not been controlled to provide an automated, broad range, precise materials processing or reaction control mechanism for both bioanalytical and bioprocess sciences.

Covaris systems are uniquely capable of providing controlled delivery of acoustic energy to closed vessels. The outcome of the use of the AFA process is samples of the highest quality, with unparalleled reproducibility, precision, and recovery for a variety of sample types with a broad range of sample output sizes to meet your needs. For more on "How It Works" click here.