FlowCam^® - Flow Imaging Microscopy Blog

This week FlowCam Applications Scientist, Kay Johnson, visited the Canary Islands to train a new team of FlowCam users at ITC (Instituto Tecnólogico de Canarias). ITC in Pozo Izquierdo is using a FlowCam 8400 with 488nm laser to monitor marine phytoplankton. The team was originally trained by Nicole Gill when they first purchased the FlowCam in 2019, but this year a new group of scientists from Italy and Serbia have joined their team. 

Pictured here (left to right): Kay Johnson, Flavio Guidi, Tonia Principe, Marianna Venuleo, Maca Golezalaz, Zivan Gojkovic 

Join us in Boston next week (booth #700) for the BioProcess International conference. This event represents our first combined marketing effort in the Life Sciences sector since our acquisition in 2020.

Flow Imaging Microscopy is currently recommended by the USP as an orthogonal analytical method for biopharmaceuticals. It has yet to be integrated into every drug development and testing laboratory however. Integrating new technologies upstream in the formulation development process continues to be an essential path for improving the safety and efficiency of the drug development. Once new methods and technologies are proven and accepted upstream, it's possible to pave the way for new technologies to be implemented downstream and beyond. 

Hundreds of biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical companies worldwide are now using the FlowCam to improve the quality, safety and stability of their formulations. Since most teams purchasing an analytical instrument for their lab want to read studies conducted by other scientists, we have gathered a collection of the top influential studies using the FlowCam to demonstrate how they are integrating Flow Imaging Microscopy into their research.

Pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical laboratories require rigid characterization of the particulate matter in injectable therapeutics. FlowCam technology offers a benchtop imaging particle analysis tool with unique software features that can discriminate particles based on morphological properties. The data obtained from FlowCam analysis can be used to verify the quality and integrity of parenteral drugs.

Earlier this month, Harry Nelson and I transported a FlowCam by ferry to the Hurricane Island Center for Science & Leadership. This beautiful island is located off the rocky coast of Maine, east of Rockland and southwest of Acadia National Park.

The Center for Science & Leadership, founded in 2009, offers a variety of experiential learning opportunities for students. Hurricane Island itself is public and students will often see visitors moor their boats and explore the the island for a day of adventuring.

In a recent paper discussing particle counting and analytical techniques, the number and type of particles present in intravitreal injection formulations of three different drug agents used against vascular endothelial growth factor were investigated.

Biopharma labs today are looking for ways to improve accuracy, safety and productivity. The use of robotics to enable the unattended, continuous running of samples is gaining popularity. The following post can help you determine if an automated liquid handling system can help your formulation development lab attain the goals of reproducibility, traceability and flexibility.

Applications Scientist, Kay Johnson has spent this week in Cincinnati training new FlowCam users at the Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW) on their new FlowCam Cyano. GCWW is located on the Ohio River across the water from Kentucky. They will be using the FlowCam Cyano to count and categorize cyanobacteria and other phytoplankton populations both before and after treatment.

This week the Bioprocessing Summit is happening in Boston and virtually.

The popular 9th Annual Rapid Methods to Assess Quality & Stability of Biologics conference track will bring together experts in analytical and formulation development to discuss rapid and practical ways to accelerate prediction and screening for protein instabilities in early- and late-stage development. The conference features case studies, unpublished work on new methods and tools employed in real-time and accelerated stability studies for proteins, cell and gene therapy products, high-throughput analytics, developability assessment, high-throughput analytics, multi-attribute methods, post-translational modifications, and stability in vaccines.

Application to a therapeutic protein pumping study performed at Skagg School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Sub-visible particle characterization is a critical method for assessing drug substance and drug product quality and stability. In this study, we evaluated the capabilities of the new FlowCam Nano (which utilizes patented oil immersion flow microscopy), in conjunction with a peristaltic pumping study that focused on protein particle formation generated during filling pump operations.