IMAPlate™ 5RC96

Developed from our patented Intelligent Multifunctional Analytic technology, the IMAPlate™ 5RC96 marks a groundbreaking leap in the multi-well plate. Featuring 96 bottomless funnel-shaped "wells", this innovation utilizes capillary force to securely retain solutions within the "wells" for reactions or analysis in plate readers. Its self-dosing capability simplifies liquid handling by ingeniously addressing challenges associated with miniaturization, enabling effortless parallel loading of solutions manually. This makes manual high-throughput applications achievable in any standard laboratory setting. Moreover, the standardized 96-well plate format ensures compatibility with automated liquid handling systems, facilitating seamless integration into laboratory workflows.

The unique features of the IMAPlate™ 5RC96 confer numerous advantages compared to conventional multi-well plates. In addition to its self-dosing mechanism, the elongated light-path length of its funnel-shaped "wells" substantially enhances absorbance detection sensitivity. Moreover, its open-bottom design facilitates the analysis of solutions across the entire UV-Vis-IR spectrum.

Furthermore, the plate's substantial surface area-to-volume ratio and minimized diffusion distance markedly expedite analyte binding during solid-phase reactions. The "go-through" washing technique simplifies the washing process and  improves the efficiency of removing unreacted reagents in various heterogeneous reactions, including ELISA and solid-phase chemical synthesis, among others.

The intrinsic low volume requirements  of  the  IMAPlate™ 5RC96  have enabled applications with precious or limited sample sizes while conserving expensive reagents. For instance, in IMAPlate-based ELISA, the need for mouse serum samples has been significantly reduced, eliminating the need to sacrifice animals as often required with conventional 96-well plates. This ensures more reliable results, as the same mouse can be tracked throughout the study, enhancing continuity in animal studies. Additionally, it facilitates multianalyte measurements with ELISA using limited human serum or plasma in clinical trials. Its user-friendly design, adaptable liquid handling, and compatibility with 96-well plate readers make it an ideal tool for both miniature heterogeneous and homogeneous assays, enhancing productivity in the lab.

The capability of utilizing capillary force to securely retain solutions within the "wells" of the IMAPlate™ 5RC96 extends its functionality to serve as an optimal "hanging drop" cell culture labware. This feature enables cells to grow at the interface of the solution and air, facilitating convenient medium changes without disturbing growing cells, as well as easy and gentle transfer of spheroids to a 96-well plate or microscope slide. It is suitable for preparing single spheroids or stem cell embryoid bodies and enabling in-well screening of compounds on these 3D micro-tissues, as well as for conducting cell aggregation assays. Its self-dosing loading solutions feature can markedly ease the operation for cell cloning experiments. Additionally, when combined with hydrogel technology, it can perform cloning formation assays or prepare multi-spheroids.


 

Applications:

Miniature heterogeneous assay:

 

  1. rapid miniature Troponin I ELISA (5 µl)
  2. miniature ELISA with low volume (5 µl)
  3. miniature ELISA with macro volume (15 - 25 µl)

Miniature homogeneous assay:

  1. miniature protein quantification: 5 µl Bradford assay
  2. miniature protein quantification: BCA assay with sample volume of 2.5 µl
  3. miniature ALK and Lipase assay with macro volume (15 - 25 µl)

Miniature spectroscopic analysis

  1. enhancing conventional ELISA sensitivity 1
  2. enhancing conventional ELISA sensitivity 2 (ELISA kit with precoated plate)
  3. enhancing conventional ELISA sensitivity 3 (ELISA reagent kit)
  4. UV spectrophotometric DNA qantification (touch-loading and pipetting protocol)
  5. UV spectrophotometric DNA qantification (5µl and 15µl pipetting protocol)
  6. UV spectrophotometric Protein qantification (0.5µl and 5µl pipetting protocol)

Hanging-Drop Cell Culture:

  1. preparation of spheroids for U87, LN319 and HEK cells
  2. illustrations of the preparation of spheroids and embryoid body
  3. illustrations of 3D cell-based assay



Publications:
 
  1. Spies P, Chen GJ, Gygax D*. Establishment of a miniaturized enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for human transferrin quantification using an intelligent multifunctional analytical plate. Analytical Biochemistry, Volume 382, Issue 1, 1 November 2008, Pages 35-39
  2. Peter Spies, Regina Mueller, Guo Jun Chen, Daniel Gygax*. A simple approach to improve the sensitivity of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay: Using the IMAPlate 5RC96 for result readout. Analytical Biochemistry, Volume 397, Issue 1, 1 February 2010, Pages 48-52
  3. M. A. Sciotti, G. J. Chen, D. Gygax*. IMAPlate Based Miniature, High Sensitive, Rapid Screening Method for Detecting Bioengineered, Secreted Lipase Activities in Yeast Expression Systems. CHIMIA,Volume 64, No. 11, November 2010, Pages 789-792
  4. Theo Sturm et al. Mouse urinary peptides provide a molecular basis for genotype discrimination by nasal sensory neurons. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 4:1616 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2610 |www.nature.com/naturecommunications