Well Scanning

One of the problems when reading cell assays in microplates is that the cell population is often not homogeneous and measuring only at the center of the well leads to inaccuracies. During a Well Scan multiple points from each well of interest are read, usually several times in a single experiment. For the analysis only the experimental data exported into an Excel format needs to be provided.

Single Point Read

During a Kinetic Read only a single point is read from each well, but multiple times at high speed. For kinetic analysis you should upload two input files. The experimental data exported into Excel format and a label file containing information on the different treatments (please see label file information).

Please note: For proper data normalization of both well scan and kinetic read, the label of the last baseline read (block) in the experimental data file must contain the word “baseline” and no further block name can contain the same word.

Label File Information

For Single Point measurements different wells with the same treatment can be grouped by providing an additional Excel file (called a label file) with information on the condition applied. The file must contain at least the same number of sheets as the number of additions (blocks) happened during the experiment. Moreover, including additional sheets with grouping information independent from the experiment additions is recommended.

In the label file you should only use the top left Excel cells in the following format:

1. Block information. A1 cell contains the treatment number (block) information (Nth number of drug additions / plate read). Each executed plate read has to have a corresponding sheet with the correct number in the A1 cell, including the first read (#1) even if no extra drug has been used. Extra sheets, for instance on cell type, on drug addition to all wells or any other information can be added to the label file, but those sheets must not contain anything in the A1 cell.
   
   
2. Header information. The first row and the first column (header) are designated for row and column names corresponding to your plate numbering. Please make sure that you have the same number of header information as your plate size regardless whether you used just part or the full plate. For instance a 96-well plate has rows from A to H and columns from 1 to 12.
   
   
3. Label information. You can provide any information about you treatment, the only requirements are that the label information has to be unique within a sheet and the corresponding wells that got the same treatment must have the same label information.
   
   
4. Sheet name. You can choose any name for your sheets the only requirement is that the order of the sheets must follow the experimental treatments. In other words, the information on the first treatment must precede the information on the second treatment.