Apart from giving the world, Rubik’s cube, ballpoint of a pen, the discovery of Vitamin C, and many more such inventions, Hungary is also applauded for giving us something without which we would not have survived the Pandemic – MICROPLATES. Dr. Takatsky is one of the reasons why humans even have a chance at beating Coronavirus today.
It is very well said that “Necessity is the mother of invention” and microplates are yet another example of that. When the influenza epidemic hit Hungary, it became crucial to conduct testing of multiple samples at a time. Due to lack of resources and funds, the Hungarians were failing at the task. In 1948, Dr Takatsky used his calibrated spiral loops to conduct the tests. Yet after multiple attempts in 1951, he was able to make the first microplate out of knitting needles. He arranged these needles and placed multiple tubes in a plate to build a 12 x 8 well plate format, which gave rise to a 96 well plate “microtitrator” which contributed to fast and easy testing. With his invention, he not only helped speeding up the testing, but even today it is used for multiple applications like clinical diagnostics, molecular biology, cell biology, food analysis and pharmaceuticals.
Today when number of Coronavirus cases have been surging in the world, microplates have been the reason we are even able to conduct millions of tests in a day. Microplates are the fundamental labware that is being used for conducting COVID-19 tests. These plates are used as a reaction factory for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Each well acts as a microreactor where the desired DNA sample is amplified. These microplates are available in multiple formats for multiple thermal cyclers.
Scientific Specialties Inc. (SSI Bio) is one of the manufacturers who have been contributing their bit for fighting against the virus by producing essential plastics for COVID-19 testing. They produce Microplates in multiple formats to cater the needs of their customers. SSI Bio thrives to promise the most accurate results for your experiments by keeping the following features in mind for their plates:
- They have ultra-thin walls to facilitate rapid thermal transfer during PCR.
- The plates have raised rims which helps in sealing the plates and avoid sample evaporation or spilling.
- They are RNase and DNase free to avoid PCR inhibition.
- The plates are designed with excellent optics which make them useful for q PCR.
SSI Bio microplates are available in 96 and 384 well plate formats. They also provide barcoding for their microplates. The alpha-numbering, indexing feature of SSI Bio makes it much simpler to work with. Apart from that, they provide three main kinds of skirt options:
- Non-Skirted: It is used in commonly available thermocyclers.
- Semi-Skirted: They are available in one notch and two notch formats which assists in robotic applications.
- Full Skirted: These provide a rigidity to the plate and helps in complete automation.
It is very important to choose to correct microplate for your thermocycler. Here is the link to our Compatibility Chart that will help identify the perfect microplate for you.
