•  Home
•  Products
•  Lab Solutions
•  Lab Equipment
•  Luminometers

Luminometers are sensitive instruments designed to measure the light and other optical properties of samples in bioluminescent and chemiluminescent assays. Luminometers are commonly used to measure small amounts of samples, such as a few microliters of protein solution or suspended cells in a microcentrifuge tube or microplate. Luminometers measure the faint emission of visible light emitted from a sample using a photomultiplier tube, which greatly amplifies incoming signals so that the weak signal can be detected.

Luminescence is defined as the emission of light from a substance when it returns from an electrically excited state to the ground state. The forms of luminescence include bioluminescence, chemiluminescence, and photoluminescence. Photoluminescence occurs when a material emits light after absorbing photons. Chemiluminescence is the emission of light as the result of a chemical reaction. Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by living organisms, and it is one form of chemiluminescence and generally involves enzymes and substrates such as luciferase and luciferin. Both bioluminescence and chemiluminescence are widely used in immunoassays. In general, luminescent assays are more sensitive than fluorescent assays. Luminescent assays are very sensitive and have a wide dynamic range due to its signal multiplication and amplification capabilities. The luminescence is measured in relative units of light (RLU), which is usually proportional to the amount of analyte present in the sample.

Luminometers can be applied to measure ultraviolet and visible light absorbance, and fluorescence in a variety of assays such as reporter gene assays, ATP assays, enzyme activity assays, cell proliferation and apoptosis assays, cytotoxicity assays, nucleic acid probe assays, and environmental toxicity and mutagenicity assays. Key parameters for selecting a luminometer include sensitivity, reproducibility, and linearity. In addition, instrument features such as low background, negligible crosstalk, wide dynamic range, size, and software are also important considerations. Amerigo Scientific offers robust, portable, and sensitive luminometers for luminescent measurements.