Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg have purchased a Tecan Safire² microplate reader for their core facility, which develops assays for screening small molecules, including modulators of specific biological pathways. The Safire² has a monochromator-based detection system and its fast wavelength scanning capability and broad spectral range make it ideal for drug discovery and high throughput screening applications, as Dr Joe Lewis, Head of the Chemical Biology Core Facility, explained.

"We run a lot of fluorometric assays on the Safire² for people that are developing new in vivo reporter tools and you often have to characterize the spectral properties of these reagents, such as the excitation and emission spectra, and try to identify the optimum parameters. The Safire²'s double monochromators and ability to select excitation, emission and absorption wavelengths are absolutely critical features for us and were overriding reasons to buy it. The reader's flexibility in being able to use any fluorophores that we would like, either individually or in combination, as well as its speed and sensitivity, are also really important.

"Our only other option would be a single cuvette-based system, which is much more laborious, taking several hours to perform a wavelength scan for 96 samples, for example, instead of just 5 or 10 minutes on the Safire²."

About Tecan

Tecan (www.tecan.com) is a leading player in the Life Sciences supply industry that specializes in the development, production, and distribution of solutions enabling the discovery of pharmaceutical substances, as well as for genomics, proteomics, and diagnostics. Through its subsidiary REMP (www.remp.com) Tecan is a leading supplier of compound and sample storage, managerial and logistic solutions. Tecan clients are leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, university research departments and diagnostic laboratories. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has manufacturing, research and development sites in both North America and Europe and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries. In 2004, Tecan achieved sales of CH 286.0 million (USD 230.6 million; EUR 185.7 million). Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SWX Swiss Exchange (TK: TECN / Reuters: TECZn.S / Valor: 1210019).

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