World-leading laboratory product manufacturer, Vitl Life Science Solutions, is expanding its instrument range with the launch of the Lu-mini, a new compact bench-top single-tube luminometer.

With over 40 years’ experience in the design and manufacture of ground-breaking technologies, Vitl has now designed and developed an instrument that will increase performance, reduce costs, and raise the standard of luminometers on the market.

The design team have taken steps to ensure this luminometer is a good investment for anyone running luminescent assays. The Lu-mini targets laboratory technicians, OEM reagent manufacturers, start-ups, and people with a limited instrumentation development budget.

The key features of the Lu-mini instrument are:

• Directly accepts 10mm to 15mm round tubes and vials, and standard 10mm path-length square cuvettes
• Fast reading time with optional integration phase
• Versatile protocol customisation including single/dual point, peak detect, kinetic data collection, and result presentation
• Storage capacity for up to 1000 test results
• USB powered with connectivity for sample/results data transfer and unit configuration via the included PC App
• Intuitive touchscreen user interface

Currently the most well-known single tube luminometer on the market, although a very popular system, has an old-fashioned push-button interface and casework design, and uses an expensive photomultiplier tube (PMT) detection system.

In contrast, the Vitl Lu-mini uses a more robust solid-state photon detector and integrates a modern colour LCD touchscreen interface and compact footprint with increased flexibility for improved performance and reduced cost.

As with their other products, Vitl’s mission is to be more than just another ‘me too’ company by providing truly useful unique selling points (USP). In the case of the Lu-mini these include the ability to directly accept different tube sizes without the need for adaptors, as well as a wealth of versatile software features for tailoring and optimizing assay and protocol performance; making it an ideal choice for University research laboratories and start-up assay development companies. The software can also be customized for OEM customers who want to use the instrument as part of an in vitro diagnostic (IVD) system.

The Lu-mini provides various measurement modes including single-point, two-point, peak detection and continuous output, and allows the integration time of readings to be programmed. There are also user-defined assay types, which allow a standard curve-fit to be defined for each assay.

The instrument is accompanied by a PC App which allows up to a hundred different measurement protocols to be defined and programmed into the instrument; including the assay type, measurement parameters, data analysis method and how the final result is presented to the user.

The Lu-mini also features a kinetic data mode for recording measurement data at read intervals of between 1 to 10 seconds, for up to three hundred data points. This enables the user to plot a graph of the readings in real-time and monitor how the reaction is developing. This data can then be upload to the PC App for further in-depth offline analysis.

Unlike other handheld instruments, where factors such as sample measurement angle could affect the reading, the USB-powered bench-top Lu-mini ensures the best read possible every time. The incredible scope of the instrument is not only beneficial to end users and OEM customers, but also to potential users in developing countries where there is a lack of consistent mains power supply.