Automated fluorescence spectometer for life science research

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As Life Science Research has developed over the past half-century, there has been an exponential growth in the application of fluorescence methods to the study of biological systems. Undoubtedly, fluorescence spectroscopy, including time-resolved fluorescence, is considered to be a primary tool in biochemistry, cell biology, and biophysics. In fact, fluorescence is now a dominant force that is used extensively in biotechnology, medical diagnostics, DNA sequencing, forensics, genetic analysis, cellular trafficking, and protein biochemistry, to name only a few. Most recently, fluorescence resonance energy transfer has undergone a renaissance in its application to cell biology and has appeared as its relative known as BRET, conducted with sophisticated confocal microscopy, which allows in vivo study of protein-protein interaction networks. Furthermore, fluorescence detection is highly sensitive, and is often possible at picomolar concentrations. This research proposal is for a high-resolution and fully automated QuantaMaster-40 (QM) T-format, fluorescence spectrophotometer manufactured by PTI Inc. in London, Ontario. This instrument would be unique at the University of Guelph campus as it is capable of both excitation and emission scanning, time-based (kinetic) measurements, thermal ramping (Peltier control), titration and polarization experiments, in a fully automated platform. The automation is particularly appealing because it means that routine measurements of ligand-binding constants can be conducted by a computer rather than a technician or graduate student standing over the instrument all day. The automation is made possible through the computer control of shutters, stepper motors, sample turret, polarizers, Peltier thermoelectric, and titration devices, but it does not come at the expense of sensitivity and resolution; hence the PTI QM-40 merges the best of both worlds. This spectrometer is expected to save researchers in the labs of numerous University investigators, literally thousands of hours each year due to the ultra-high sensitivity and fully automated features of the QM-40 instrument, while at the same time, increasing the productivity of highly qualified research personnel.