Microtiter Plate

A microtiter plate (sometimes called a microplate) is a flat plate with lots of "wells" used as small test tubes. A microtiter plate is used mostly in laboratories and pharmacies. A microtiter plate could have 6, 24, 96, 384 or even sometimes 1536 wells arranged in rows. Some microplates, used in the industry, have been built with 3456 or sometimes 9600 wells for maximum efficiency. Each well of a microplate can only hold very small amounts of liquid. Microtiter plates are most frequently used for screenings and cultivation of large sample amounts. In order to perform an immunoassay (e. g. ELISA = Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay) the bottoms of microtiter plate wells are coated with antibodies to detect specific substances within samples.