Project Overview
In the realm of synthetic biology, plate readers are useful tools that are found in laboratories all over the world as they allow for fast, reliable data acquisition over a large sample size.
However, due to this excessive cost, many potential consumers around the world are unable to use these machines or settle for using simple cuvette reading devices without a lot of functionality like those supplied by Vernier Software and Technology.
Our team decided to tackle this problem and create a device that offers the functionality and efficiency of plate readers for a much lower price.
As a result, we designed KAM-Spec, an open-source, cost-effective and dispersion-based microplate reader capable of full visible spectrum absorbance and fluorescence measurements.
Performance
We tested the functionality of KAM-Spec by performing a series of standard synthetic biology experiments with our device.
We show that KAM-Spec is capable of the following:
(1) Resolving full absorbance & fluorescence spectra over the visible light range
(2) Measuring the dynamic change in a spectrum over time due to a stimulus
(3) Resolving a dose response curve