Imaging analysis is emerging as a powerful tool for drug discovery and specifically high throughput screening. Sci Imager has been developed as an optical screening tool for both cell-based and non-cell-based fluorescent assays. The unique aspects of Sci Imager are as follows:
1. It reads any wavelength from 200-900nm
2. It reads 96, 384, and 1536 well microplate simultaneously, with kinetic updates in the msec range
3. Monitors effectively fluorescence from adherent/non adherent cells as well as from membranes
4. Can be employed for functional assays such as calcium mobilization as well as time resolved fluorescence such as CY5-coupled to proteins for binding assays
5. Liquid handling system that dispenses in 96, 384, and 1536 well microplates temperature controlled chamber to ensure physiological conditions.

The detection optics of Sci Imager is based on a cooling charge device (CCD) technology. Kinetics are updated by images by the CCD camera and are translated into numbers by a powerful software with HTS capabilities. The xenon lamp provides extremely powerful signals and does not require any sensitivity enhancement system. The system is coupled to a new scanning liquid handling system for 96, 384, and 1536 well microplates that can aspirate and dispense from three different fluid addition microplates into a fourth microplate for optical testing. The ability of the Sci Imager to read effectively fluorescence from both adherent and in suspension cells gives it a great advantage for high throughput screening. The wide range of wavelengths in the Sci Imager allows the use of multiple dyes such as Fura-2/AM, Fluo-3/AM, Indo-1/AM and fluorescent tags such as Cy5 for time resolved fluorescence in ligand binding.

Sci Imager is ideal for the following diverse requirements:
- Homogeneous, or same cell, single fluorescence analysis
- Kinetic, or time-based, research requirements
- Cell-based fluorometric assays (i.e., the measurement of intracellular calcium, membrane potential and intracellular pH as well as nucleic acid detection); luminescence, bioluminescence, Chemiluminescence
- Non-cell-based assays and absorbents assays
- Infrared Assays