Flow Imaging Microscopy Blog

Will you be at the National Marine Educators Association Conference in Durham, NH next week? Stop by our booth in the Strafford Room to see our new FlowCam 5000 in action!  Bring a sample to be analyzed in the booth and see the streamlined efficiency of our new instrument.

Ever wondered how a FlowCam works, or how it compares to a traditional microscope? Read further to learn about the basic mechanics that all of our instruments use.

On Friday our team welcomed a visit from Professor Natasha Barteneva from Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. Several years ago, Dr. Barteneva approached us with interest in setting up a Flow Cytometry laboratory for Nazarbayev University. With her unique position as a research scientist at Harvard University and Faculty Professor at Nazarbayev, she facilitated a grant for their university.  The rest, as we say, is FlowCam history.

The positive impacts of therapeutic proteins on the lives of people suffering from cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, ALS, lupus, arthritis and other diseases and conditions have attracted significant investment in drug research and development.

As a result, hundreds of therapeutic protein-based drugs have earned FDA approval, with enormous benefits to human health. With the rapid growth and acceptance of these biologics, more and more information about impacts of product quality on patient outcomes has become available. Based on this growing body of evidence, one of the most important product quality attributes is the concentration and sizes of subvisible particles.

"Lives are on the line when it comes to correct understanding of how therapeutic proteins can form particulate" says Professor John Carpenter, PhD, Professor of  Pharmaceutical Sciences and Co-Director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Read the entire article in Laboratory News

Click the infographic on the right to view larger

In microscope systems, it's the numerical aperture (NA) and the wavelength of the light that determine the minimum distance that two particles can be resolved. Clear images, accurate sizing, and consistent categorization all depend on your NA setting.

Currently the compendial method for quantifying subvisible particles equal to or greater than 10 µm and 25 µm uses light obscuration (LO), which is internationally harmonized in the U.S., European, and  Japanese Pharmacopoeia. However, numerous reports have indicated that subvisible particles smaller than 10 µm could elicit immune responses.

In 2018, a research study was performed by our customers, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, using oyster larvae from the Mobile Bay - Mississippi Sound system off the coast of Alabama. There have been concerted efforts to reestablish a flourishing population of oysters and oyster reefs in this area, in order to protect the shoreline and to save the population from rapid decline. An important piece of this puzzle is the ability to track larval transport (the movement of oyster larvae from birth to adult settlements), and this study's aim was to establish a method of tracking these larvae.

In the Austral Summer of 2018-2019 a Norwegian research group aboard the RV Kronprins Haakon, an ice-breaking polar research vessel, traveled to the Antarctic on a research mission with two objectives: 1) to update the estimate of biomass and distribution of krill off the coast of West Antarctica and 2) to become educated on the marine environment in this area for the purpose of implementing a Feed-Back Management (FBM) system, allowing fishery managers to set catch limits based on current ecosystem health.

When you buy a FlowCam, you gain access to a team of technical experts dedicated to supporting and improving your FlowCam and VisualSpreadsheet experiences. Residing in the Fluid Imaging Technology headquarters in Maine, USA, our Support team works directly with our Engineering departments to stay up-to-date on the most pertinent FlowCam and VisualSpreadsheet updates and improvements. In turn, they provide you with the most accurate, beneficial, and efficient customer service.  Ask our Technical Support team about:

Flow Imaging Microscopy has revolutionized particle analysis by offering qualitative, morphological analysis in addition to quantitative analysis (count and size).