Flow Imaging Microscopy Blog

As part of our 20^th anniversary celebration, all 30 Fluid Imaging employees traveled together to hand-deliver two new FlowCam instruments to the lab where the FlowCam was invented, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (BLOS) in East Boothbay, Maine.

Contaminates in stormwater runoff that feed into our waterways are a leading cause of environmental pollution. Hydro International (a UK company with a local facility just down the road from Fluid Imaging in Portland, Maine) analyzes the content of stormwater and wastewater in order to provide solutions that
prevent contamination utilizing machinery, cleansers, and filters.

Every summer since 2015 scientists from around the country have come to Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine to be trained in harmful algae taxonomy and identification. This training course project is part of NOAA NCCOS’s Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms (MERHAB) program and is lead by Dr. Michael Lomas.  Bigelow provides the theoretical and hands-on training to our next generation of HAB scientists so that they have the proper tools to effectively and accurately identify HAB species.

Pictured here: phyto- and zooplankton imaged by the FlowCam off the Maine coast

Yesterday Heather Anne Wright and I were invited to join the Friends of Casco Bay on a mission to track down and capture samples of the algae bloom taking place in Casco Bay.  Mike Doan skippered the Baykeeper, while Will Everitt and Ivy Fignoca accompanied the group this afternoon on a ride out to Chebeague Island.

In exciting recent news, Fluid Imaging has entered into an exclusive research agreement with the University of Colorado Boulder to begin a study into the possibilities of automated identification of certain bacterial species, headed by Dr. Theodore Randolph. This study has potentially life-saving implications if proven successful.

Pictured above: Dr. Randolph with his FlowCam at the University of Colorado

Last week we hosted an International Industrial Sales Summit at our headquarters in Scarborough, Maine. We welcomed representatives from distributors located in China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Mexico, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

If you've spoken to anyone at Fluid Imaging, it's probably been one of our salespeople. Our five sales reps come from diverse backgrounds with varied interests and market specialties. No matter your FlowCam application, we have someone to help you! 

Read on to get to know those voices on the phone...

University of Colorado PhD student, Vaida Linkuviene, along with Fluid Imaging Applications Scientist, Heather Anne Wright, and Co-Director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the University of Colorado, John Carpenter, recently presented a poster at the 2019 Colorado Protein Stability Conference, at which Fluid Imaging has long been a participant. Vaida has been working with the FlowCam to assess the effects mechanical stress on protein formulations in syringes.

Pictured here: Vaida with her poster "Effects of transportation of syringes containing protein formulations through a hospital pneumatic tube system: Particle characterization by multiple methods"

Earlier this month, Harry Nelson traveled to Kuwait to train employees of KISR (Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research) on their new FlowCam Macro, and their 2012 FlowCam VS4. Dr. Rakhesh Madhusoodhanan and his colleagues at the Oceanography Research Group are very excited to expand their research with the use of their new FlowCam.