Amersham ImageQuant 500 chemiluminescence CCD camera

A compact, fast, easy-to-use CCD camera imaging system for chemiluminescence Western blotting, colorimetric, and UV fluorescence image capture.

Advantages

• Sensitivity: detect picogram levels of sample with chemiluminescence.
• Compact integrated design: built-in touchscreen lets you work independently of a dedicated PC, has a small footprint that fits neatly on any lab bench.
• Automatic overlay function: simultaneously image and overlay chemiluminescent samples and colored molecular weight markers, making molecular weight determination easy.
• Flexible image storage: store images on a USB memory stick, on the system, or in a network connection folder.
• Simplicity: auto, semi-auto, and increment exposure modes with a user-friendly touchscreen operation helps you take the best possible image.
• Speed: ready to operate in less than five minutes with the rapid cooling CCD camera.
• Ease of installation: just unpack, power up and start.

Designed for chemiluminescence detection and gel documentation

This CCD imager is a practical and affordable solution to individual researchers or laboratories that are either looking for their own imager or need extra imaging capacity. The 30 × 28 cm footprint has the same area as a typical laptop computer, which allows the imager to fit neatly on almost any lab bench without the need to connect ancillary equipment.

Ready for use in less than five minutes

Amersham ImageQuant 500 imager consists of a touchscreen, sample chamber, USB port, camera and light sources. The 8.3-megapixel CCD camera is ready for use in less than five minutes. Reliable Peltier cooling combined with binning significantly reduces noise levels and improves both the sensitivity and linearity of the system.

Flexible imaging modes for Optimal chemiluminescence detection

Signal intensity can be detected either automatically or semi-automatically by specifying an area of interest. In addition, single (manual) or multiple (incremental) exposures can be set by the operator. The camera is designed for optimal chemiluminescence detection with regard to sensitivity and dynamic range.

Three LED light sources

The system features three LED light sources: a combined blue epi-/UV epi-light and a white epi-light. The combined blue epi-/UV epi-light allows imaging of fluorescence signals above 550 nm. This feature makes the camera well suited for DNA stain imaging with SYBR™ Green, ethidium bromide, or Deep Purple Total Protein Stain.

A fast and easy way to verify the molecular weight of detected protein bands

The white epi-light source (470 to 635 nm) enables documentation of colorimetric markers and stains, such as Coomassie Blue or Silver. Moreover, the white light mode can be combined with the chemiluminescence mode to automatically generate an overlay image of the colored marker and chemiluminescent sample images. This provides a fast and easy way to verify the molecular weight of detected bands, and identification of band of interest if multiple bands are generated.

Software

In addition to the on-board software, images acquired using Amersham ImageQuant 500 can be analyzed using ImageQuant TL (IQTL). IQTL is an automated and easy-to-use general-purpose gel, blot, and array image analysis software. IQTL requires installation on an external computer and cannot be installed on Amersham ImageQuant 500.

Western blot detection

Western blotting, also known as immunoblotting, or protein blotting, is a well-established and widely used technique for the detection and analysis of proteins. A variety of detection systems, based on chemiluminescence, chemifluorescence, fluorescence, chromogenic, or radioisotopic detection are available. Chemiluminescence is reliable and well known for having the greatest sensitivity of any available detection method.

Further, there has been a decline in usage of radioisotopic and chromogenic reagents due to safety issues with handling radioactive isotopes and poor sensitivity with chromogenic reagents, which has meant, enzyme-based chemiluminescent and direct fluorescence have been extensively developed and are now the preferred method for detection due to their improved sensitivity and wider dynamic range.

What is chemiluminescence western blot detection?

Chemiluminescence Western Blot detection is based on antibodies conjugated to horseradish peroxidase (HRP) that catalyze the oxidation of luminol in presence of peroxide, resulting in light emission. HRP has several advantages over other enzymes such as alkaline phosphatase (AP). HRP can be easily conjugated to antibodies or streptavidin (which binds with extraordinarily high affinity to biotin, a commonly used tag, and can be used with different chemiluminescent reagents. Considerable efforts have been made to develop HRP-based detection reagents to obtain higher detection sensitivity, stronger light intensity and long-lasting signals.

Specifications

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