Novel microplate optimised for Chemiluminescent assays

The unique Krystal 2000 black & white plate from Porvair Sciences is purpose designed to provide optimised performance with Chemiluminescence assays.

The Krystal 2000 black and white plate's novel individual white wells, in an opaque black polystyrene matrix design, is achieved using a patented "two-shot" manufacturing process. The special design of the plate totally eliminates the well-to-well optical crosstalk inherent with plain white plates, reducing false positives and leading to unmatched accuracy, sensitivity and repeatability of photometric readings. Very high signal-to-noise ratio and low detection limits can be achieved in chemiluminescence applications including immunoassays, enzyme assays, reporter gene assays, ATP determinations, RNA and DNA quantitation, cytotoxicity measurements, mycoplasma detection, beta-galactosidase assays and cell proliferation measurements.

The problem of a bright well "masking" weaker chemiluminescence signals from adjacent wells is well known. With standard white assay plates light is often transmitted through their rather thin walls. With very low intensity signals characterising chemiluminescence assays, it is important to eliminate this well-to-well crosstalk to achieve the very best detection limits. While modern multi-mode plate readers provide very good sensitivity for chemiluminescence readings, none of them can accommodate extremely bright wells adjacent to very dim wells in white plates without reporting artificially high readings. In addition whilst these units all have sufficient dynamic range to cope with the variations in intensity, by virtue of their very sensitivity, they will detect optical cross talk through the plate walls.

Porvair introduced the Krystal 2000 black and white plate (total well volume 350 µl) to directly overcome this very problem. By using white polystyrene containing a high proportion of titanium dioxide to form individual cells, the weak chemiluminescence signals from each well are reflected up towards the sensitive photomultiplier detectors. The black plate matrix, containing a significant quantity of carbon black, completely eliminates well-to-well cross talk by quenching all light penetrating the white cell walls. The result is unmatched sensitivity and extended dynamic range across the whole plate, essential for "cherry-picking" assays where unknowns may be spread randomly across the plate.

Designed to conform to the standard SBS/ANSI format the 96-well Krystal 2000 black and white plate is fully compatible with all commercially available top reading luminometers, multi mode readers, robotic sample processors and automated liquid handling systems.