Kinetic studies such as using SYTOX green stain are time consuming and require reading of plates at precisely defined intervals over a long period of time.  For example this may require operators to load plates into the plate reader say at 09:00 every morning for 7 days.  This is a perfect application that benefits from automation.

SYTOX Green stain is a simple and quantitative single-step dead-cell indicator.

• increase laboratory efficiency - runs 24 hours a day 7 days a week without manual intervention
• frees highly trained staff from tedious operations
• improves the quality of data - plates are read at precisely controlled intervals, plates can be read more frequently and data is automatically tracked and analysed
• reduces costs - staff are not required to work during the night or at weekends

A Molecular Devices SpectraMax plate reader is used to measure the fluorescent intensities from the microplates.  A Molecular Devices StakMax (stacker) is use to store the plates and load them into the reader.  Overlord3 software schedules the assay and controls the instruments.

Data is passed to Microsoft Excel which uses a script, written by paa, which collates and displays the results. Samples may be run in duplicates and triplicates with average value calculated.