BioAquarius
Symmetrical double beam design, 1.8nm optical bandwidth. Fully
programmed for bioanalysis. A very capable general purpose scanning
double beam spectrophotometer.

Bio Spectrophotometers
Specially pre-programmed for bioanalysis and molecular biology, the BioQuest and BioAquarius also have all the normal functions of UV visible spectrophotometers, scanning, time course plots, single wavelength measurements in Absorbance, Concentration or Transmittance, cell and wavelength programming, method storage etc.

Protein Analysis
Preprogrammed methods for all the normal protein analyses are provided, these include the following methods:

Assays may also be carried out using the Warburg and Christian 2 or 3 wavelength methods and the Kalb and Bernlohr procedures, all of which are preprogrammed.

Nucleic Acid Assays
Concentration and purity may be determined by the methods of Warburg and Christian, Kalb and Bernlohr or using user selected parameters.

DNA, ssDNA, dsDNA, RNA and oligonucleotides may be quantified and examined for purity using one wavelength, or two or three wavelength ratio methods.

Molecular concentration may be determined for Oligo Samples and theoretical melting points for DNA samples calculated using the nearest neighbour interaction model.

Concentration Curve Fitting
For more accurate measurements and for measurements where Beer's law is not obeyed a straight line quadratic or cubic curve may be fitted to up to 30 standards or replicate standards. Editing of suspect standards may be carried out and the final curve stored in code protected memory for future use.

Reaction Kinetics
Both single and up to 6 cell multi-cell Kinetics are readily carried out. Water or thermoelectric temperature control is available also sample stirring.

Reaction curves are displayed on screen and regression analysis applied to the user selected part of the curves to calculate results.

Advanced Kinetics is possible providing such plots as Michaelis Menton and Lineweaver Burk etc., from which Km and Vmax are automatically calculated.

Small Sample Measurements
A return Micro Sipette system is available which uses a 75µL cell, measurements on samples of 300µL or less may be made with low levels of cross contamination.

A special holder accommodates cells of 50µL for measuring valuable small samples. These cells may be used in both sample and reference beams in the BioAquarius instrument.

For the ultimate in small sampling a special pipette loaded 5µL cell with 5mm pathlength is available.

Experimental Thermal Melt (Tm)
Thermoelectric temperature programming is available for thermal melt (Tm) determinations.

A fully annotated plot of absorbance against temperature is displayed. Data may be reprocessed, derivatised, overlayed, stored or transferred to a PC.

Method Generation and Storage
All preprogrammed methods may be modified by the user to meet their requirements. Any modified method may then be stored as an additional method in code protected memory.

DataStream - Data to PC
The DataStream system allows all data to be exported rapidly and with great ease, to a PC for incorporation into a spreadsheet or mathematical package of the users choice - Excel, Grafit etc - for report generation and mathematical manipulation.

Program Any Assay
The Cecil Assay program software module enables users to mathematically formulate any assay for measurement at up to 10 wavelengths. Rapid text entry of any formula and setting a wavelength program is all that is required for automatic measurement of any sample. A cell program may be incorporated for multiple automatic sample measurements. Up to 20 formulae, each with up to 76 characters, may be combined for the most complex of assays.

Never before has programming assays for automatic measurement and computation been so easy.

Application Example
A typical experiment is illustrated here. The scans of protein, DNA and a sample mixture are shown overlayed over the range 230-330nm.

An automatic calculation of the ratios and the DNA purity of the sample was made using the pre-programmed three wavelength ratio method. The results were automatically tabulated as shown.