Microplate
Overview
A microplate, also known as a microtiter plate or multiwell plate, is a flat plate with multiple "wells" that act as small test tubes. It has become an essential tool in analytical research and clinical diagnostic testing laboratories. A common application is the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), which is foundational to most modern medical diagnostic tests for both humans and animals
A microplate typically features 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, 384, or 1536 sample wells arranged in a 2:3 rectangular matrix. Some variants have 3456 or 9600 wells, and a product called "array tape" offers a continuous strip of microplates embedded on flexible plastic tape. Read
Layout
All plate widgets have a similar layout but vary in dimensions. The first row and column are reserved for names. When selected, the respective row and column will be highlighted.
| Widget | No. Columns | No. of Rows |
|---|---|---|
| 6-Well Plate | 3 | 2 |
| 12-Well Plate | 4 | 3 |
| 24-Well Plate | 6 | 4 |
| 48-Well Plate | 8 | 6 |
| 96-Well Plate | 12 | 8 |
| 384-Well Plate | 24 | 16 |
| Flexible Well Plate | Any | Any |
Custom Labels
All plate widgets support customizable column and row labels, allowing you to annotate each column or row with meaningful identifiers — such as sample names, experimental conditions, or treatment groups.
To set custom labels, click on a column header (e.g., 1, 2, 3…) or row header (e.g., A, B, C…) to select it. An input field will appear where you can type a custom label. This label will replace the default numeric or alphabetic identifier for that column or row.
Common use cases:
- Assign sample names to columns (e.g., "Control", "Treatment A", "Treatment B")
- Specify concentrations along rows (e.g., "1 µM", "10 µM", "100 µM")
- Label rows or columns with time points, replicates, or reagent identifiers
Custom labels are saved with the plate data and will appear in all views, including exports.