Gemini EM is a microplate spectrofluorometer from Molecular Devices. It has dual scanning monochromators that allow for 1 nm increment selection over the wavelength range of 250 - 850 nm. Bandwidth for both excitation and emission is 9 nm. Lamp source is a Xenon flash lamp (1 Joule/flash). Scanning options are endpoint, kinetic, spectral scanning, and well scanning. Microplate formats include 6-384 well plates. Top and bottom readings are available. Additional features include shaker and temperature control.
Light Source: Xenon flash lamp
Wavelength range: Excitation: 250-850 nm, Emission: 360-850 nm
Wavelength Selection: Monochromator, tunable 1.0 nm increments
Wavelength Bandwidth (Excitation and Emission): 9 nm
Dynamic range: 10^6
Temperature:
Range: Ambient + 4 °C up to 45 °C
Uniformity (Microplate): ± 1 °C @ 37 °C
Computer software is Molecular Devices SoftMax® Pro. Features include five parameter logistic curve fitting, parallel line analysis with observation weighting, and hundreds of ready to run assay protocols.
Selected publications of instrument use:
- Svensson, B, T Oda, FR Nitu, Y Yang, I Cornea, Y Chen-Izu, JD Fessenden, DM Bers, DD Thomas, and RL Cornea. 2014. FRET-based trilateration of probes bound within functional ryanodine receptors. Biophys J 107:2037-2048. Cover article.
- Cornea, RL, SJ Gruber, EL Lockamy, JM Muretta, D Jin, J Chen, R Dahl, T Bartfai, KM Zsebo, GD Gillispie, and DD Thomas. 2012. High-throughput FRET assay yields allosteric SERCA activators. J Biomol Screen 18:97-107.
- Cornea, RL, FR Nitu, M Samso, DD Thomas and BR Fruen. 2010. Mapping the ryanodine receptor FK506-binding protein subunit using fluorescence resonance energy transfer. J Biol Chem 285:19219-19226.
Acknowledgements
The BTC should be acknowledged in any publications arising from the data analyzed in the BTC with the following text:
Experiments reported in this paper were performed at the Biophysical Technology Center, University of Minnesota Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics.
Once published, please let us know via an email to umn-btc@umn.edu.