In article <a87bvg$hmo$1 at mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk>, MES
<walkmori at sover.net> wrote:
> Recently I have been told that companies like Applied Biosystems are moving
> from optical filters to gratings for spectral filtering.
>> Is it possible to sequence with a grating based instrument?
>> Is the near band rejection high enough?
>> Is the optical energy throughput high enough?
Actually, I believe that, ever since the 377, ABI has been using
gratings for spectral filtering. That's why they call their instruments
"Prism". It is also why it is so simple to use a number of different
dye sets in ABI insturments.
I believe the answer to all your questions are yes. Both types of
insturments have advantages. I believe the MD machines, which use
filters and a confocal microscope for detection are more sensitive,
while ABIs insturments are easier to set up for different dye sets, and
easier to use for more than 4 dyes.
Hope this helps.
Dave Fritzinger
>>> ---
---
