FlowCam - Flow Imaging Microscopy Blog

We're excited to announce the release of VisualAI^TM software for protein biotherapeutics. An add-on for VisualSpreadsheet 6, VisualAI is a pre-trained, AI-driven image analysis module to recognize images of subvisible aggregates in biotherapeutics captured on any FlowCam 8100 or FlowCam LO instrument.

VisualAI is a powerful tool for quantifying protein aggregate and silicone oil droplet content in any protein-based drug product.

Utilizing proper capture settings during image acquisition is crucial to obtaining accurate concentration and sizing data with FlowCam. Distance to nearest neighbor (DNN) is an important capture setting that specifies the distance (in µm) required between two particles for them to be imaged separately. Properly optimizing DNN ensures that only one complete particle is captured per image.  

In May 2022 our FlowCam Aquatic Team attended the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting (JASM) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This historic meeting brought together scientists from nine different societies to form the largest gathering of its kind in history. It was a welcome change after two years of virtual meetings and limited in-person collaboration. 

We are happy to announce the winner of the 2022 FlowCam Aquatic Research Grant, Kelsey Meyer, a Ph.D. candidate studying marine biology at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) College of Life Sciences and Agriculture in Dr. Bonnie Brown's research group. Kelsey is pictured here holding a European Green Crab (also referred to as the green crab).

Kelsey oversees Dr. Brown's lab field sampling efforts which include taking samples from Great Bay Estuary (GBE) in southeastern New Hampshire. Specifically, Kelsey's Ph.D. research aims to determine the extent to which green crabs are a predator of oysters, and if so, at what specific life stage for each species.

We're committed to partnering with you to understand your challenges, clarify your goals, and provide you with a practical solution for your analytical needs.

Working closely with our marketing and customer care teams to create a seamless experience, we will guide you through the process of learning about Flow Imaging Microscopy and help you determine which instrument is best suited for your application.

The Alexander Laskin Research Group at Purdue University is a "multi-disciplinary experimental group with research interests in the areas of Analytical and Physical Chemistry of airborne and aquatic environmental particles, driven by the overarching goals of understanding their impact on the environmental chemistry, the air pollution, and the Earth’s climate."

The environmental particles studied by the Alex Laskin group can have natural and anthropogenic sources including oceans, deserts, volcanoes, transportation emissions, aviation, fire retardants, explosion disasters, and even household cooking. These particles often have multiphase chemistry, meaning they can change shape, size, and chemical composition. Particles below 2.5 µm are considered respirable and are able to enter the lungs, bloodstream, and brain.

In April of 2022, we brought FlowCam to NACE, the Northeast Aquaculture Conference and Exhibition, in Portland, Maine, a stone's throw from our FlowCam headquarters in Scarborough. FlowCam is frequently used in aquaculture operations to detect harmful algae and to monitor the health and growth of larvae.

About 15 conference attendees had the opportunity to take a side trip to tour the aquaculture facilities at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), not far away. That morning we caravanned down to UNH's Judd Gregg Marine Research Complex in New Castle, New Hampshire. The complex is located at the mouth of the Piscataqua River and shares space with a US Coast Guard base. After a quick round of introductions, our guides, Erich Berghahn and Michael Doherty,  brought us to the Coastal Marine Laboratory (CML). Here, we learned about lump fish (pictured here), a species found in the Gulf of Maine that has been used as a cleaner fish to remove sea lice from farmed salmon. At the CML, we saw lump fish of all sizes and saw how they are cultivated in the lab for research. 

Particle analysis is a critical but often tedious task for researchers in analytical laboratories. Data collection is not only time-consuming but can involve additional sample handling steps that introduce inconsistencies to the final measurements. Automation provides a natural solution to these issues, and automated liquid handlers (ALH) use robotics to perform sample processing enabling analysis with minimal human intervention. Automation not only vastly reduces the time and effort required from operators to perform experiments but, in the context of analytical instruments, helps users collect more reproducible and overall higher quality data.

After a two-year break, the American Water Works Association's ACE Conference will be hosted in-person in San Antonio, Texas, from June 12th - 15th. The conference brings together water sector professionals from around the country to learn about new technologies and techniques in water quality monitoring, mitigation strategies, and overcoming engineering challenges. 

FlowCam 8000 series instruments provide count and concentration data for a wide variety of fluid samples. Relative counts can be compared reliably among different samples, while concentrations provide particles/mL values based on the actual fluid volume imaged by the instrument. By understanding and considering the various factors that can affect reported concentrations, FlowCam users can ensure they are obtaining accurate concentration data.