A story of how Multiskan changed laboratory measurement procedure standards

Multiskan, the first ever microplate photometer, was introduced to the market in 1978. It quickly established itself as it offered dramatic increases in the throughput of enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) measurements. This brief history gives a quick overview of the development and introduction of the new product concept as well as some of the challenges it faced.

Six weeks to market in 1978

“We simply believed it would work”, said the Multiskan development team. “It all resulted from a need from laboratories to move from qualitative results to quantitative results. And we felt we had the answer”.

In 1978, Labsystems in Finland and Flow Laboratories in the US formed a 50-50 joint venture named Eflab to develop, market and manufacture a new type of laboratory instrument – a microplate photometer. The product was originally sold under the Flow Laboratories brand name of Titertek (After dissolving the Eflab joint venture in 1988, Multiskan continued to be sold under Labsystems’ own name).

Although it seemed that the market might be ready for such a product, an international focus group of top scientists unanimously concluded that “…only a small number of customers would ever buy the instrument.” But Labsystems and Flow Laboratories never lost hope.

The original idea for the Multiskan came from the Labsystems FP-9, a 9-cuvette vertical path photometer. From this start point, the initial group of pioneers developed the Multiskan, a 96-well microplate photometer. Microplates were already established as a technology, but not for use with immunoassays. As a result, one of the first obstacles was to ensure that absorbance readings from microplates became accepted by the scientific community. Once this was proven, Multiskan became synonymous with ELISAs and the popularity of both the measurement technique and the instrumentation took off hand-in-hand. Within the first ten years the radical Multiskan instrument became the de facto standard.

Too fast to process

“Imagine explaining to a lab technician that Multiskan could measure 96 samples in one minute – a task that at best took 2 hours in 1978. Envisage their amazement, it was truly profound! There had been no other tool quite like it before. For the first time, we were offering laboratories a piece of equipment that was easy to use, convenient and fast. It was a brave product concept” said a salesperson at that time.

Generating results with Multiskan was happening faster than data could be processed, as computers were not easily available. Fortunately, computer technology was also developing at a fast pace and as a result were becoming available to an increasing number of laboratories.

A beloved child has many names

The first nick-name for the Multiskan was “Finnie-Minnie” named by American customers. At the time customers were eager to get rid of the radioactive labels used in their testing in favor of the more ‘friendly’ ELISA concept. Everyone wanted to use enzyme labels, and this was the instrument they needed to measure them. As ELISAs became more accepted they extended into many new areas and subsequently increased the Multiskan market from the original diagnostic and medical research to include research in veterinary, plant, pathology, hormone, environmental, cell culture, toxins and bacteria.

Astounding success

Behind every successful product there is a good team. Multiskan was the innovative laboratory instrument of its time - providing faster, more accurate and precise diagnostic results than ever before.

Multiskan was the first microplate reader in the market and it has set the standard for the industry. It played a significant role in changing modern science, particularly in the diagnostic field. The success ever since has been astounding.

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