FlowCam^® - Flow Imaging Microscopy Blog

Austin Water, the City of Austin, Texas' water utility, recently purchased a FlowCam Cyano instrument. Austin Water first learned about the advantages of flow imaging microscopy from employee Misty Klein (pictured here).

When Misty moved to the City of Austin, she understood that image analysis with FlowCam would be essential to Austin Water's strategy to prevent harmful algal blooms. She recommended FlowCam Cyano to her colleagues and received funding to purchase an instrument in 2021.

In August, our FlowCam team attended our first in-person drinking water conference since the onset of the pandemic: the Kentucky/Tennessee Water Professionals Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We met drinking water and wastewater professionals from around the region, ranging from small utilities to state agencies.

Pictured right: Savannah Judge presenting on the water quality monitoring program developed by the City of Wichita Falls in Texas 

While analysis with light obscuration is standard, the FDA has long made clear that size data alone, collected with light obscuration, is not adequate to ensure safe and effective drugs. Orthogonal methods such as flow imaging microscopy are necessary to provide validation.

With the FlowCam LO, the first and only light obscuration (LO) instrument with imaging capabilities is now available. This easy-to-use instrument delivers a powerful, all-in-one solution to meet compliance standards while allowing verification with high-resolution images.

Explore our new technology in the video below.

Aquatic scientists often need to store natural samples for a period of time before processing them using FlowCam. There are multiple preservatives available for this purpose. Glutaraldehyde is a
popular choice of preservative because it will preserve pigment autofluorescence, and therefore allows the use of FlowCam's "Trigger Mode" to automatically distinguish cyanobacteria from other algae, and reduce images of detritus and other nonfluorescing particles. Another preservative often used is Lugol's solution, which does not preserve fluorescence, but is less toxic and requires less stringent storage conditions.

Yokogawa Fluid Imaging Technologies was recently named to the list 2021 Best Places to Work in Maine. The statewide survey and awards program are designed to identify, recognize, and honor the best places of employment in Maine, benefiting the state's economy, its workforce, and businesses.

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.