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FLUOstar OPTIMA FL - Plate Reader for Fluorescence and Luminescence Assays


The FLUOstar OPTIMA FL is a BMG LABTECH entry level plate reader that offers three detection modes: fluorescence intensity, time-resolved fluorescence and luminescence (flash and glow).

Fluorescence intensity and time-resolved fluorescence measurements use a xenon flash lamp and sensitive PMTs that are coupled with high transmission band pass filters, providing a stable, low-noise signal platform for ultra sensitive fluorescence readings. The FLUOStar OPTIMA's optical performance extends from 240 nm up to 740 nm depending on assay needs. Luminescence measurements use a dedicated electronic system which elevates the luminescence capabilities of the OPTIMA to match stand alone luminometers.

The FLUOstar OPTIMA FL comes with six standard filters and it can support a wide variety of microplate-based assays in all major application areas including biomolecular interaction monitoring, cell-based drug discovery assays, enzyme activity measurements, quantification assays, and reporter gene detection:


  • Luminescence assays such as luciferase and ATP quantitation

  • Enzyme activity assays (e.g. caspase, protease)
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  • Biomolecular interaction assays (e.g. FRET / BRET assays)

  • Time-resolved fluorescence (e.g. DELFIA® assays)

  • Reporter gene assays (e.g. GFP, YFP, luciferase)

  • Protein, DNA and RNA quantification (e.g. PicoGreen®, NanoOrangeTM, Quant-iTTM)



Comapre to


The modularity of the FLUOstar OPTIMA FL allows users to upgrade the microplate reader at any time with additional detection modes, including UV/Vis absorbance and fluorescence polarization. Further upgradeable features include up to two on-board reagent injectors, extended incubation up to 60°C, gas vent connection and much more. Two of the most common upgrades researchers want are for kinetic assays - fast kinetic and long-term cell growth kinetic. Reagent injectors are a requirement for fast kinetic assays such as calcium flux, ion channel or flash luciferase. Whereas incubation and the gas vent connection make for an ideal environment to study cell growth assays such as bacteria, fungi or tissue cells. Kinetic data can be collected as fast as 50 readings per second or as long as one reading every 2.5 hours.

All OPTIMA microplate readers can be incorporated into a wide array of robotic systems. For mid-throughput plate handling, BMG LABTECH offers the 50 microplate Stacker with an integrated barcode reader.

All BMG LABTECH microplate readers come with user-friendly setup and an intuitive reader control software and comprehensive data analysis software, MARS. MARS has full graphing capability, 21 CFR part 11 compliance, and a full suite of bioanalysis functions built in: one click calculations of Z', S/N, %CVs, standard deviations, well-scanning visualization, picking, Lineweaver-Burk plots, IC-50/EC-50, DNA quantitation, enzyme kinetic calculations, Michaelis-Menten kinetic evaluations, Delta F analysis, regressions, unknown calculations, undilution features, and much, much more.

PicoGreen, NanoOrange and Quant-iT are trademarks of Invitrogen, Corp.
DELFIA is a registered trademark of Perkin Elmer, Inc.