NanoDrop® ND-1000 Spectrophotometer measures small-volume — one microliter — samples. Patented technology eliminates the need for cuvettes and capillaries. A sample is pipetted directly onto the measurement surface where it is drawn into a column between the tips of two optical fibers to create the measurement path. Nucleic acid samples up to 37000 ng/μl are measured using a 1 mm path length (with auto-ranging to 0.2 mm). Processing of four samples a minute is simple: pipette the sample onto the measurement surface, wait 10 seconds for full spectrum measurement, wipe the sample from the measurement surfaces and repeat. The instrument supports measurement of: concentration and quality of nucleic acids; cy-dye label concentration of microarray samples; protein concentration; cell density; and full-spectrum UV/Vis absorbance. In instances when sample volume is inherently limited — such as RNA extractions from laser capture microdissection samples for neuroscience or DNA extractions for epidemiology and human genetics — the ND-1000 is especially useful.