Black Hole Quenchers

Some commonly used quenchers-such as DABCYL and TAMRA-suffer from a number of drawbacks, including poor spectral overlap between the fluorescent dye and quencher molecule (DABCYL) or inherent fluorescence of the quencher (TAMRA)-resulting in a relatively poor signal-to-noise ratio. Black Hole Quencher™ (BHQ™) molecules have been developed to overcome these drawbacks.

Benefits:

• No native fluorescence, resulting in lower background fluorescence
• Increases signal-to-noise ratios, providing higher sensitivity
• Accesses the visible spectrum into near-IR for reporting (480 to 730 nm)
• Maximizes spectral overlap, increasing efficiency of quenching
• Enables wider choice of reporter dyes for multiplexing assays