QLS — FOR REPRODUCIBLE RESULTS IN MICROSCOPY AND DRUG DISCOVERY

QUANTITATIVE LIGHT STANDARD: FOR REPRODUCIBLE RESULTS IN MICROSCOPY AND DRUG DISCOVERY

The Quantitative Light Standard – QLS – makes it possible for the first time to run precise, consistent tests of the light source and detection systems in a microscope or microplate reader, and to correct for variations among systems.

This fills an urgent need in biomedical research and drug discovery. For years, researchers and pharmaceutical firms have spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours running assays in which they try to gather subtle, precise data, while maintaining all conditions at defined, reproducible levels. Their results, however, have often been tainted by variations between optical systems or within a single system over time.

Virginia Technologies, in collaboration with Willis Optics, has developed the answer to this problem: With the Quantitative Light Standard, researchers can now calibrate their microscopes and microplate readers according to NIST-traceable absolute radiometric units. Consequently, in gathering and analyzing data, they can now correct for variations in system optics. In sharing data with colleagues, they can abstract from those optics, making their results more comparable and reproducible across labs and across time. With the Quantitative Light Standard, biomedical scientists world-wide can now achieve experimental continuity, comparing data and reproducing experiments on the basis of known, consistent optical conditions.

Virginia Technologies licenses its proprietary QLS technology to manufacturers of microscopes, microplate readers, and other scientific instruments. The company has developed reference designs and fully functional prototypes of a broad line of QLS products. Management would be happy to review these with firms that wish to license the technology. To enquire about licensing the Quantitative Light Standard, please click here.