• Fluorescence Intensity including FRET and multilabel applications
• Time-Resolved Fluorescence including DELFIATM
• High-Performance Luminescence (flash and glow) dedicated luminescence circuit
• Absorbance UV/Vis with 1 cm path length correction

• Ca2+ measurements (e.g. Ca2+ Flux with Fura-2, Indo-1, or FLUO 3/4)
• Enzyme activity
• FRET / BRET assays
• Cell toxicity, proliferation and viability
• Protein and nucleic acid quantitation (Bradford, Lowry, DNA, 260 nm / 280 nm)
• ATP quantification
• Immunoassays, ELISAs
• Luciferase, dual luciferase, BRET with simultaneous dual emission detection, DLReady certified
• ORAC and ABEL antioxidant assays

By integrating a high intensity xenon flash lamp with sophisticated light guide technology the FLUOstar OPTIMA can cover the wavelength range from 230 to 900 nm for excitation or emission. The FLUOstar OPTIMA can read all plate formats from 6- up to 384-well plates in all four measurement modes, and 1536-well plate reading is possible in both fluorescence and time-resolved fluorescence mode. A QuickStart mode allows novice users to read plates with just 3 clicks, and impressive well-scanning software allows cell-based assays to be performed with ease.

Incubation
Temperature-regulated heating plates above and below the entire plate movement area provide uniform incubation up to 45C and is standard on all OPTIMA readers. The top incubation plate is at a slightly higher temperature than the bottom plate to eliminate or reduce condensation when lids or sealers are used. Optional is the 60C incubation for those with elevated temperature needs and is the highest available on any microplate reader.

On-board reagent injectors
The FLUOstar OPTIMA can be equipped with up to two syringe injectors. These injectors can be used in protocols to deliver agonists, substrates, enzymes - even cells to wells for advanced microplate assays. Within the control software, you can adjust injection speed and timing that is appropriate for the assay. Delivery volume is adjustable between 5-350 L in 0.5 L increments and is individually adjustable for each well allowing the user to produce dilution schemes, concentration ranges, etc. BMG LABTECH has been putting injectors into microplate readers since their inception and we design all of our readers with injection capability from the ground up so no bulky add on boxes beside or on top of the microplate reader.

Endpoint, slow, and fast kinetic measurements
Kinetic applications can be defined with interval times from 20 ms per read (50 points per second) to several hours allowing you to capture any kinetic event. You can capture a fast calcium signal that happens in a few seconds or measure bacterial growth over a period of days. In addition you can define kinetic windows that have variable data frequencies so you collect data at a high resolution in regions of interest, and slow down in areas of relatively little change.

Multi-color detection
The FLUOstar OPTIMA can be used to measure up to eight fluorophores/chromophores per well allowing you to perform 260 nm / 280 nm, SNPs, and other multichromatic assays easily. And, due to the fast filter switching, less than 0.6 s per switch, reads of FRET or BRET assays can be done extremely quickly.