Plate reader
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Microplate Readers (also known as Plate readers) are laboratory instruments designed to detect biological, chemical or physical events of samples in microtiter plates. Sample reactions can be (assayed) in 6-1536 well format microtiter plates. In most cases, a high-intensity lamp passes light to the microtiter well and the light emitted by the reaction happening in the microplate well is quantified by a detector. Common detection modes for microplate assays are absorbance, fluorescence intensity, luminescence, time-resolved fluorescence, and fluorescence polarization. The first microplate readers available were filter based while modern day readers are tunable(monochromator based) enabling use of any fluorophore and chromophore, allowing assay flexibility as needed in the laboratory. Current day plate readers come with software tools for data analysis, automation, GxP tools, and LIMS capabilities.
What is Microplate Detection used for?
- ELISAs (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay, a biochemical technique used mainly in immunology to detect antibodies or antigens)
- Protein and cell growth assays
- Nucleic acid quantitation
- Molecular interactions
- Enzyme activity
- Cell toxicity, proliferation, and viability
- ATP quantification
- Immunoassays
- High throughput screening of compounds and targets in Drug Discovery such as FLIPR assays
These devices typically use optical and/or in a few cases label-free techniques to evaluate the contents of the microtiter plate wells. An ELISA plate reader, for example, is used to measure the intensity of the color formed in each well. ELISPOT plate readers are used to count the colored spots that are formed in the course of ELISPOT assays. Using these plate readers can eliminate (or at least, help reduce) the amount of human subjectivity which goes into evaluating the plate contents. Microplate readers are widely used in research, drug discovery, bioassay validation, QC and manufacturing processes in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry and academic organizations.
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