About MicroCal

MicroCal was founded in 1977 by Dr. John Brandts (Amherst, MA) with the mission to develop, manufacture and market ultrasensitive calorimeters. Prior to the formation of MicroCal, commercial calorimeters were extremely difficult to use, had long experimental times and required large amounts of sample due to poor sensitivity.    

Technology and product improvements are cornerstones of our philosophy at MicroCal.  Our innovations have led to numerous advances in both microcalorimetry systems and software for the collection, analysis and presentation of calorimetric data.  MicroCal instruments are recognized across the world as the industry standard and can be found in major pharmaceutical, biotech, academic and government institutions worldwide.

MicroCal's first product was the MC-1 scanning calorimeter. This instrument quickly became the leading ultrasensitive Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC).  In the late 1990’s, MicroCal launched the VP-DSC, the best-selling ultrasensitive DSC system in the world.  This was followed in 2003 with the introduction of the VP-Capillary DSC Platform, designed for high-throughput stability screening.  

MicroCal pioneered the development of a commercial Isothermal Titration Calorimeter (ITC) capable of measuring biological interactions. In 1989, MicroCal introduced the OMEGA, the first ITC system which was sensitive enough to measure heats of binding for biological interactions.  Substantial improvements were made with the development of the MCS-ITC and further improvements in sensitivity and ease of use have been included in the VP-ITC and the Auto-ITC systems.  In 2007, we introduced the iTC200, representing yet another leap in technology and instrument performance.  In 2008 we introduced the Auto-iTC200, a fully automated version of the iTC200.

In 2014 MicroCal was acquired by Malvern Instruments from GE Healthcare Life Science. Since then both the MicroCal PEAQ ITC and MicroCal PEAQ DSC have been launched based on customer and market input. 

Over the past 40 years, MicroCal has been privileged to participate in the development and advancement of an important technology that has found broad application in the basic research of biomolecules and the discovery and development of many new therapeutics and biotherapeutics. 

We look forward to continuing our participation and leadership in this important area of biological science and to developing important new innovations that will continue to expand the future capabilities of our technology and products. Conceiving those innovations, developing the core technology and turning those developments into advanced new products is our job, and more importantly, it is our commitment to our customers. 

View our MicroCal products