The growing demand for routine quantitative analyses for life science research is stimulating the development of new bioanalysis tools as well as forcing refinements to more long standing technologies. A large majority of these critical life science tools utilize light. Yet ironically, for decades life science instrumentation has been limited in design and performance by the light sources they employ. Today's lighting technologies create significant instrument cost as well as cost of ownership. Moreover, the growing demand for affordable analysis tools in miniaturized formats with high density and small volume sample capacities simply cannot be addressed with today's commercial light sources. ? ? Life science instruments present challenging requirements for light generation and Lumencor's light sources address this need. In many respects these performance criteria are more difficult to meet than those of other light applications. Analytical instruments need inexpensive, intense, uniform, stable, durable, monochromatic light across a broad UV-VIS-IR spectrum. Presently, no commercially available light source can satisfy all of these demands; nor will they likely do so while much higher volume lighting markets attract competitive innovation. ? ? In this Phase I proposal, Lumencor will build two independent sources designed to provide red and green light suitable for exciting Cy3 and Cy5 fluorescent labels. The light sources will be evaluated for enhanced power, stability, efficiency, durability and spectral purity compared to light sources currently employed. Additional analysis will be performed to evaluate the signal to noise improvements for a microarray reader. A Phase II program will build on this success to develop two additional lamp colors and to engineer a fully integrated four-color light system for desktop instruments and handheld analyzers. A critical assessment of the impact of these light sources on the performance, engineering and cost of microarray readers, microtiter plate readers, Q-PCR tools, sensors and fluorescence microscopes will be made. ? ? A small, cost effective, high performance light source is essential to advancing the development of instruments for life sciences. Lumencor is developing just such a powerful light source with better spectral stability, greater durability, pure color at lower cost than today's commercial light systems. It is only with this type of advanced light source that today's life science instrumentation will mature into portable, cost effective, quantitative tools to be proliferated to the growing audience of researchers, clinicians and patients. ? ? ?
