Well-known sanitation luminometers such as Lumitester Smart (Kikkoman, Japan), SystemSURE Plus (Hygiena, USA) and Biolum-III (Tianlong, China) are the most affordable (around $2,000), but they lack the sensitivity required for medical or environmental work. Their detection limit of 10⁻¹⁵ mol ATP is reached only through very high reagent (luciferase) concentrations, large analytical substrate volumes (bacterial swabs) and long integration times (up to 15 seconds). The cost per assay reaches around 400 roubles, driven largely by the amount of reagent required.

The laboratory segment is represented mainly by Berthold and Promega. The most affordable model, the LB 9509 Junior (Berthold, Germany), starts at around $17,000 yet offers modest sensitivity (about 3 × 10⁻¹⁵ mol ATP). More sensitive Berthold instruments have large benchtop footprints, are unsuitable for field or point-of-care use, and are significantly more expensive (from $40,000). The Glomax 20/20 (Promega, USA) starts at around $20,000 in its minimal configuration. It offers excellent sensitivity and a fairly compact footprint. Such devices are out of reach for small labs, hospitals and colleges, which limits the spread of bioluminescent testing.

Among photomultiplier instruments, the Glomax 20/20 is the sensitivity reference, and our team compared it with a SiPM-based system (silicon photomultipliers, used in LDNova Luminore). The comparison is described in: Lukyanenko K., Denisov I. et al. Handheld Enzymatic Luminescent Biosensor for Rapid Detection of Heavy Metals in Water Samples // Chemosensors. 2019. 7(1). P. 16. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9040/7/1/16

Thus LDNova Luminore (built on new silicon light detectors) achieves sensitivity genuinely suitable for the faint signals needed in medical and environmental tests — at an order-of-magnitude lower cost, and in a portable form factor that matters for field measurements and point-of-care monitoring. In sanitary control, In sanitary control, Luminore can make tests more affordable, cutting the cost of a bacterial contamination assay to a rough estimate of $1.

An affordable luminometer will create a market of useful reagents for digitizing the chemical environment around us and monitoring quality-of-life standards. The global biosensor market grows every year, reflecting society’s demand for such technologies.