Years ago, researchers had only one data-imaging option: autoradiography. These scientists tagged samples—whether nucleic acid, protein, cell, or tissue—with radioactive labels, and captured images on film. Safety concerns, convenience, and sensitivity, spurred the development of alternative techniques, and today, researchers can choose from a range of options, including fluorescence, chemifluorescence, and chemiluminescence, in addition to autoradiography. Fluorescence occurs when

To truly reap the benefits of the flood of information coming out of sequencing factories worldwide, investigators must move beyond the traditional notion of "one-gene, one-experiment," in favor of highly parallel, automation-friendly, and miniaturized assays. One such tool is the microarray--a matrix of biomaterials attached to a support such as glass or plastic.1-3 Using microarrays, scientists can perform hundreds or thousands of experiments in parallel, all thanks to a chip usually no bigge

Caspase Related Reagents Courtesy of Bingren Hu, Queen's Medical Center, Hawaii. Provided by Cell Signaling TechnologyConfocal micrograph of double immunostaining for cleaved caspase-3 (green) and propidium iodide (red) in newborn rat brain tissue. This section shows control and transient cerebral ischemia. Editor's Note: This is the second article in our two-part series on cell death. The first part: J. Cortese, "Death watch I: Cytotoxicity detection," The Scientist, 15[5]:26, March 5, 2001.

Suppliers of Cytotoxicity Reagents (Part 1) Suppliers of Cytotoxicity Reagents (Part 2) Editor's note: This is the first in a two-part series on cell death. A second article on apoptosis will be published June 25. Courtesy of Loats AssociatesA comet assay showing degradation of 45 percent of the genomic DNA A few years ago the ultimate fate of dead cells was the laboratory trashcan. But cell necrobiology (the study of mechanisms of cell death) is now one of the hot fields of science.1 Cells c

The NOVOstar BMG LabTechnologies Inc. of Durham, N.C., has developed NOVOstar™, a compact, multi-mode microplate reader with a wealth of detection and automation options normally found only in high-end instruments. NOVOstar has an integrated, programmable pipetting system that enables aspiration, dispersing, and mixing of fluids within a microplate well. Three reagent stations can be accessed for maximal flexibility in assay design (e.g., to combine substrates, inhibitors, and antagonists)

Suppliers of CCD Cameras Suppliers of CCD Cameras (continued) Suppliers of Microscopy Peripherals - Supplemental Table not in Print Edition Andover filters Converting a new microscope's potential into accomplishment takes patience and knowledge. It has to be coupled to imaging devices, mounted on a vibration isolation system, and surrounded by microhandling instruments. The options can seem overwhelming. First, the number of Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) cameras for biological microscopy is s

There seems to be no end to the stream of optical technologies hitting the market. Cambridge Research & Instrumentation (CRI) Inc., of Woburn, Mass., has developed CellView and SpindleView imaging systems to apply the company's LC-PolScope™ technology1,2 to the subcellular organization of living cells without stains or fluorescent labels. Many subcellular structures are oriented polymers that are spatially organized, or anisotropic. This anisotropy causes the speed of light to v

Microplate Readers Microplate Readers (continued) Laboratory nights are interrupted every so often by the noise of a microplate reader finishing up one plate, then another, and another. But everybody--researchers and students alike--is sound asleep at home, thanks to the newest bunch of microplate reading and juggling machines. The microplate reader was created from the tube spectrophotometer designs of the 1970s to save precious antibody samples. At first clumsy and inaccurate, absorbance mic

Reading the fluorescent signals on microarrays that give a glimpse into cellular gene expression is typically the job of laser scanners. This technology works well, but lasers can be very cumbersome to upgrade and maintain. The arrayWoRx Microarray Scanner, a new type of scanner from Applied Precision Inc. of Issaquah, Wash., uses white light instead of lasers to illuminate microarrays. The arrayWoRx system can excite any standard fluorescent probe, and changing dyes is as easy as using a

Human Arrays Human Arrays (continued) A 20th century scientist may have spent an entire career studying the function of a single protein, never imagining that one day it would be possible to study every human gene at once. This capability comes in the form of a microarray, a surface collection of immobilized genes that can be simultaneously examined with specialized equipment.1 Many current applications of arrays, also known as biochips, can be used in functional genomics as scientists seek ch

High-Throughput Fluorescence Products High-Throughput Fluorescence Products (continued) PE Biosystems' FMAT 8100 HTS system Efforts by biopharmaceutical and academic laboratories to screen very large synthetic or natural compound libraries have inspired development of new and diverse forms of fluorescence technology suitable for ultrafast quantification, or high-throughput screening (HTS). This article will review the assays and instruments behind this high-speed chase. But before jumping in

Turner Designs' Picofluor portable fluorometer The "smaller is better" technology revolution that has spawned fields such as microfluidics and products such as 1,564-well microplates has also inspired development of convenient, pocket-size lab instruments. Turner Designs Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., has introduced two handheld fluorometers: the Picofluor™ for life science measurements and the Aquafluor™ for on-the-spot environmental determinations. The Picofluor is a lightweight, h