Using Microplates to Measure Microbial Growth

In addition to their roles as disease vectors, bacteria and other microbes play an important part in modern science as essential tools for advancing biological research and synthetic biology. Methods for monitoring microbial growth and functions are crucial across research applications, from determining antibiotic efficacy to monitoring bioprocessing yields.¹ Although scientists have historically faced throughput limitations when performing such microbial studies, microplate technologies have revolutionized the scale and scope of microbiology research.

Many assays assess the growth or replication of microbes. Scientists typically quantify bacteria, fungi, and parasites over time using the absorbance measurement mode on spectrophotometers. Traditionally, absorbance-based assays have relied on cuvette measurements. While this approach provides stable results, the throughput of samples is limited to about a dozen or less per test run, limiting the scope of microbial studies. All this changed with the emergence of microplate readers.

Microplate readers not only enable a huge increase in the number of samples that scientists can measure simultaneously, but also reduce material cost, saving time and money. Moreover, the flexibility of microplate readers’ detection modes opens further possibilities for assay development. Researchers can assess growth, as well as quantify microbial metabolites and viral replication, which is not possible using conventional absorbance assays.

Modern microplate readers, such as BMG LABTECH´s CLARIOstar^® Plus multi-mode microplate reader, are ideally suited for performing microbiology research. They offer all commonly used detection modes needed for microbiology applications such as absorbance, fluorescence, and luminescence. Further dedicated features such as internal atmospheric and temperature control, reagent injectors, shaking patterns, and scanning options have been specifically developed with microbiological applications in mind.

Learn more about applications for microplate readers in microbiology