Flow Imaging Microscopy Blog

Over the years, Fluid Imaging Technologies CEO, Kent Peterson has observed a shift in focus of process components in biopharmaceutical manufacturing from steel and glass to plastic (Single Use Technologies or SUT).  For sure there are advantages and disadvantages of each, from cost to breakage, to formulation interaction and stability.

Pollen-based microcapsules such as hollow sporopollen exine capsules (SECs) have emerged as excellent drug delivery and microencapsulation vehicles due to their eco-friendly nature, uniform micron-scale size, and chemical and physical stability. Natural pollen species such as dandelion pollen grains offer diverse architectural features such as large internal cavities and a tough outer exine layer that can be readily prepared and utilized as microencapsulation materials.

One Ocean Expeditions' vessel Akademik loffe will be setting sail on August 23rd for 22 days with a team of scientists, students and a film crew to study the Arctic Ocean. First ever live-broadcasts are planned for select museums, classrooms and citizen scientists worldwide.  

The Akademik loffe will set sail late August 2018 to conduct climate change studies in the Canadian Arctic. A FlowCam will be aboard and used for plankton monitoring. Credit: One Ocean Expeditions. 

Aboard the Akademik Ioffe, the team will collect water, ice, and air samples to advance the understanding of and document the effect climate change is having on the environment and biodiversity in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

The expedition's chief scientist, Dr. Brice Loose of the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, is coordinating and leading the research into the exchange of greenhouse gases between the water and atmosphere, and changes in distribution and abundance of two vulnerable levels of the Arctic food web – plankton and seabirds.  

Do you know the faces behind your instruments? We'd like to introduce our online community to some new members of the Fluid Imaging Technologies team. 

The Innovator of the Year award recognizes a Maine manufacturer who is creating game-changing ideas, processes, products, services and business models. Companies who were nominated have created new and fresh products in the past year, have had a positive effect on their business, industry or community through their innovation, and have embraced impressive technology to achieve their innovation.

People often ask us, "What is the FlowCam?" and we answer with one of the following:

• an imaging flow cytometer
• an imaging particle analyzer
• a really cool microscope
• the best thing since sliced bread

But really it's all of those things. The FlowCam is a flow imaging microscope that captures high-resolution digital images of nano- and microscopic particles suspended in a fluid stream. 

The oceans are the lifeblood of humankind, literally. They provide the world with over 50% of its oxygen, enable global trading of goods and services, and provide habitat for innumerable species. 

This year, the theme of World Oceans Day is preventing plastic pollution in our oceans and encouraging solutions to promote healthier oceans. Plastic pollution exists as meso- and macroplastic, or large plastic items such as cellophane wrap, food wrappers, lighters, and synthetic fabrics, and microplastics, which are the breakdown product of larger plastic items.

The ability to characterize particles has always been of utmost importance to protein scientists. Until recently flow imaging microscopy has offered imaging data to acquire size, shape and other morphological information used to differentiate protein aggregates (ranging in size from 2 µm to 5 mm) from other particles in a given formulation.

NIST protein agglomerates as imaged with 40X oil immersion Nano-Flow Imaging system.

Microplastics are everywhere. Microplastics result from the breakdown of larger plastic waste (plastic bottles, bags, straws, glitter, fishing nets, toothbrushes, etc.) as well as synthetic fabrics (spandex, nylon, polyester, etc.). Research has discovered these micropollutants in our oceans, our shellfish, our bottled water. However, these tiny plastic particles can be challenging to study and remain vastly uncharacterized.

Comprehensive characterization of proteins is often challenging given their complexity. In many cases, singular analytical methods cannot provide the complete picture for specific attributes. Orthogonal methods—different methods intended to measure similar attributes—are often necessary to provide independent confirmation of protein properties.