Microplate Fluorometer with Integrated Pipetting System

The NOVOstar is an exciting product for cell-based kinetic assays and research development. Previously, cell-based assays required the use of expensive HTS equipment, which lead to limited accessibility for scientists in the assay development stage. The NOVOstar offers the right equipment necessary for cell-based assays as well as any other assay suitable for the microplate format.

The NOVOstar has a dual microplate carrier that allows the user to designate a reagent and measurement microplate. Furthermore, a transfer pipet is incorporated into the design for plate-to-plate transfers along with access to three reagent stations providing you with flexibility in assay design. In addition, the unit has up to two injectors that offer the same variable delivery volume and injection speed as other BMG LABTECH OPTIMA instruments. Incubation, shaking, user-defined kinetic sampling rates, and bottom reading are all standard equipment on the NOVOstar.

Wide Range of Applications

The NOVOstar can be used for all fluorescence-based applications that can currently be read by our POLARstar OPTIMA microplate reader. Due to its integrated programmable pipettor system, the NOVOstar is especially well-suited to screen large numbers of compounds in kinetic cell-based assays or to create a dose response curve by measuring a wide range of analyte concentrations. Applications that the NOVOstar is targeted for include:

• Ca²⁺ uptake
• Membrane potential studies
• Intracellular pH
• Measurement of intracellular ionic changes
• Fluorescent reporter gene assays
• Traditional fluorescence assays involving up to eight excitation and emission pairs.

For BMG LABTECH application notes that can be performed on the NOVOstar, please click here.

Exceptional Technologies

The NOVOstar has numerous features that cannot be found on other microplate readers including:

• Integrated Programmable Pipettor System: The system can be used for plate to plate transfer, aspirating, dispensing, or mixing fluids within a microplate well.
• Dual Microplate Carrier: Accommodates one reagent plate and one measurement plate, allowing you to rapidly screen 96 or 384 different analytes in one test.
• Additional Reagent Stations and Reagent Injectors: The pipettor system has access to 3 additional reagent stations (e.g. standard agonist/antagonists, ionophore, washing, etc.) and you can use any of the two injectors for dispensing these and other standard reagents.
• Fast Kinetics: The NOVOstar is one of the few instruments that can measure kinetic events with a resolution of 20 ms, allowing for calcium uptake assays to be performed with great precision. Furthermore, the control software allows the user to define variable sampling rates throughout the test run so that data evaluation can be simplified.
• Multi-wavelength Detection: NOVOstar uses a xenon flash lamp that allows you to measure up to eight excitation/emission pairs in each well. This allows you to read dual excitation fluorophores like fura-2 with speed and convienence.
• Precise Temperature Control: The NOVOstar incorporates BMG LABTECH's proprietary heating plates situated above and below the entire plate movement area proving for uniform incubation up to 45°C.
• Real-time Data Observation: Assay progress can be observed with the real-time graphics feature that shows the fluorescence data either as a numerical value, color gradient, or X-Y plot.

Software

BMG LABTECH´s Windows™ based software has an easy to use control package and powerful data evaluation segment. It is compatible with the new Windows Vista™ operating system and is fully compliant with FDA regulation 21 CFR Part 11.

The control software allows flexible definition of microplate layouts, filter selection, interval and injection times, as well as measurement frequency, heating, and shaking parameters. During measurement, it is possible to observe the data with the Real Time well display feature, which allows viewing of raw values, ratios, curves, or even color coded pictorials.

The evaluation software provides all the macros needed for fast data calculation. Five pre-programmed worksheets allow averaging of replicates, blank subtraction, undilutions, signal plots, slopes, max values, quantitation, averages, %CVs, standard curves, and calculation of unknowns and much more.

Windows Vista is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.