UV Laser for TR-FRET Assays

For years, BMG LABTECH’s UV Laser-based RUBYstar TRF microplate reader was considered the gold standard for Cisbio’s HTRF® Europium-based TR-FRET chemistry. Recently though, the multidetection PHERAstar Plus has become the de facto standard for HTRF®, as well as becoming one of the first LanthaScreen® Certified+ instruments by InvitrogenTM. The PHERAstar Plus multidetection HTS microplate reader obtains extremely high Z' values and large assay windows through a dedicated TR-FRET measurement system.

With the PHERAstar FS HTS Microplate Reader, BMG LABTECH has taken TR-FRET measurements to the next level. The PHERAstar FS can be equipped with BMG LABTECH’s new UV-Pulsed Nitrogen Laser for enhanced performance. The new UV Laser (on the PHERAstar FS) has 20% higher output than the industry standard Laser on the RUBYstar. The higher excitation energy leads to improved assay performance and lower limits of detection.

This new UV-Laser also operates at a higher pulse frequency than competing UV-Laser systems. Flying mode TR-FRET measurements on the PHERAstar FS can be made with multiple Laser pulses per well providing users with the fastest Laser-based TR-FRET reading on the market: 9 sec for a 96 well  plate, 18 sec for a 384 well plate, and 59 sec for a 1536 well plate. 

Increased Performance for Terbium-based TR-FRET Assays

BMG LABTECH’s UV-Laser not only allows for faster read times in Europium TR-FRET assays, it also greatly enhances performance in newer Terbium  based TR-FRET assays. Traditional Europium and Terbium based chemistries do benefit from UV-Laser excitation due to the superior output of the Laser and their broad UV absorption bands. However, the new Lumi4TM Tb Cryptate has a high absorption peak that coincides with the peak output of the UV-Laser at 337 nm. This further enhances the system and assay performance with this fluorophore. The image to the left shows a schematic diagram of the GPCR HTplex^® assay principle from Cisbio. IP-One and cAMP are measured together in an HTRF^® format using Lumi 4-TbTM cryptate as a donor, along with red and green dyes as acceptors. The UV Laser on the PHERAstar FS greatly improves performance in all TR-FRET assays.