Craic Technologies' QDI 2010 UV microspectrophotometer uses absorbance microspectroscopy to differentiate DNA from salt and protein crystals.
UV microspectrophotometers can also qualify the crystal once it has been located and identified.
It acquires a microscopic crystal's absorbance spectrum for this method.
If it is a salt or protein crystal, it will not absorb light at 260nm.
However, the nucleic acids exhibit a strong absorbance peak near that wavelength.
From the spectra, the concentration of DNA in the crystal can be determined, even if the crystal is contaminated by protein, which absorbs at 280nm.
Because of the inherent flexibility of microspectrophotometers, the crystals may be both imaged and microspectra acquired of crystals as small as a micron.
These systems can operate in the visible and NIR regions, in addition to the ultraviolet.
The ability to use microspectra to rigorously qualify the crystal can save time by selecting only viable crystals for the next step of a growth procedure.
