Carterra Launches Industry's First 48-channel HT-SPR Platform

New Vega instrument combines ultra-high-throughput, data quality, and assay flexibility for drug discovery

Published on Feb. 9, 2026

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Carterra Inc., a leading provider of technologies for high-throughput biology, has announced the launch of the Carterra Vega™ High-Throughput Surface Plasmon Resonance (HT-SPR) instrument. The Vega is the industry's first 48-channel SPR platform, delivering 12-fold higher throughput versus the market-leading system for small molecule through large molecule discovery and development workflows. The Vega enables primary screening of large libraries with high-resolution binding, addressing a long-standing need among drug discovery scientists for parallel SPR measurements across a substantially higher number of channels.

Why it matters

The Carterra Vega platform comes at a time when there is a pressing need for highly parallel analysis of molecular interactions, as AI-based drug discovery is now a part of most pharmaceutical and biotech discovery workflows. Carterra's platforms, including the new Vega, enable investigators to train their algorithms from high-resolution data sets scaled to unprecedented size, with no other label-free technologies enabling AI drug discovery at this scale.

The details

The Vega instrument can screen more than 20,000 small molecule interactions per day, compared to a few thousand per day with current SPR systems. It features an internal reference and two binding locations in every channel, allowing researchers to run the broadest range of label-free SPR applications. The Vega's speed, automation, and minimal sample consumption expand workflow flexibility across multiple applications and assay formats without operator intervention. With an optional robotic module, the instrument can operate unattended for days, further increasing throughput and efficiency.

  • Carterra is preparing to ship the first Vega purchase in Q1 of 2026 to one of the pharma key opinion leaders (KOLs) who will be bringing it online immediately to speed small molecule discovery.
  • The Vega platform is launching at the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) Conference and Exhibition, February 7-11th 2026, in Boston, MA.

The players

Carterra Inc.

A leading provider of innovative technologies designed to accelerate the discovery of novel therapeutic candidates. Carterra's high throughput SPR platforms have been adopted by all top 20 pharmaceutical companies, major CROs, and leading biotechs across the world.

Josh Eckman

Co-Founder and CEO at Carterra.

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What they’re saying

“One of the greatest challenges scientists face is time: the time required to screen large libraries of small molecules and fragments to find a promising lead. This process has been limited by the capabilities of legacy SPR systems. From working closely with researchers, we understand this is a significant frustration.”

— Josh Eckman, Co-Founder and CEO (Carterra)

“The Carterra Vega platform is a technological leap forward—a true step change. Faster hit discovery with 48 parallel channels means a quicker route to viable clinical candidates. Vega is the only platform of its kind, opening new possibilities for early discovery teams to reshape workflows and accelerate pipelines.”

— Josh Eckman, Co-Founder and CEO (Carterra)

What’s next

The Vega platform is launching at the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) Conference and Exhibition, February 7-11th 2026, in Boston, MA.

The takeaway

The Carterra Vega platform represents a significant advancement in high-throughput, label-free biomolecular screening and characterization, enabling researchers to accelerate drug discovery workflows and train AI algorithms with unprecedented data sets. This technology is poised to reshape early-stage drug discovery across the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.