What is bio-layer interferometry?

Bio-layer interferometry (BLI) is an optical technique used to study biomolecular interactions. It measures the interference pattern of white light reflected from two surfaces: a biosensor tip and an internal reference layer. Changes in the number of molecules bound to the biosensor tip cause a shift in the interference pattern, which is measured in real-time. BLI is commonly used to determine binding affinity, kinetics, and specificity of protein-protein, protein-peptide, protein-small molecule, and antibody-antigen interactions. It is label-free, which means the interacting molecules do not need to be modified with fluorescent or radioactive tags.