title: Absorbance and fluorometric sensing with capillary wells microplates.
abstract: Detection and readout from small volume assays in microplates are a challenge. The capillary wells microplate approach [Ng et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 174105 (2008)] offers strong advantages in small liquid volume management. An adapted design is described and shown here to be able to detect, in a nonimaging manner, fluorescence and absorbance assays minus the error often associated with meniscus forming at the air-liquid interface. The presence of bubbles in liquid samples residing in microplate wells can cause inaccuracies. Pipetting errors, if not adequately managed, can result in misleading data and wrong interpretations of assay results; particularly in the context of high throughput screening. We show that the adapted design is also able to detect for bubbles and pipetting errors during actual assay runs to ensure accuracy in screening.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Optics, Acoustics, and Mechanics, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Han Yen
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Brandon Huey-Ping
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Cheong
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Neild
authors.forename: Oi Wah
authors.initials: OW
authors.lastname: Liew
authors.forename: Tuck Wah
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Ng
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D005470:Fluorometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D055616:Microtechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D055620:Optical Phenomena
chemical_list: C485184:enhanced green fluorescent protein; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins