Research spectrofluorometer and microplate readuer

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Fluorescence illumination and measurement is the most rapidly expanding technique employed today, both in the medical and biological sciences, a fact which has spurred the development of more sophisticated fluorescence instrumentation and numerous fluorescent dyes. Spectrofluorometry has now become the method of choice in many applications in modern biology to measure the average fluorescence in bulk samples. This method is commonly used for nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and protein quantitation and purity, ELISA, enzyme kinetics, calcium, pH, chloride, sodium, potassium and other ions that are measurable by fluorescent dyes. The availability of living colors fluorescent proteins such as the GFP and reef coral fluorescent proteins, and the ease of conjugating fluorescent dyes to proteins, investigations into the functionality of molecules and proteins has become increasingly accessible. Although these techniques are now accessible to most laboratories in the Institute because of its modern laboratories and equipments. Currently, one fluorescent microplate reader is available at the institute. However, this instrument uses a limited number of filter sets for excitation and emission, which is not accurate for many applications such as enzyme kinetics and PicoGreen DNA detection. In addition, whenever a new fluorescence dye comes out we need to buy expensive filters. If granted, the expanded availability of the scanning specrtofluorometer opens the door not only to new researchers and students, but also to new applications such as Endpoint, kinetic and spectrum. The many different projects described in the proposal illustrate the diversity of new projects, which will become feasible with new equipment, and demonstrate that the new equipment will be extensively utilized.