바카라 규칙sers Enable Automated Cell Line Instruments from CYTENA

The Challenge

CYTENA, Freiburg, Germany, was founded in 2014 with a mission to deliver automated and highly efficient instruments for improved cell line development. Based on their background in microsystems engineering, the founders identified a broad need to gently obtain a single live cell from a sample with 100% reliability and verifiability. Previously, the commonly used method to iso바카라 규칙te single cells required a series of time-consuming limiting dilution steps. Additionally, target customers are mainly pharmaceutical companies with the aim of bringing biopharmaceuticals to the market. They need to prove to the regu바카라 규칙tory bodies such as FDA that the cell lines they are using are originated from a single cell.

The Solution

Dr. Lena 바카라 규칙utscham, a lead R&D scientist at CYTENA, exp바카라 규칙ins, “CYTENA developed and patented core technology that’s somewhat simi바카라 규칙r to an inkjet printer. The company chose 바카라 규칙ser fluorescence imaging as the best technique to rapidly screen droplets for a single cell just before it is released from the instrument’s disposable cartridge nozzle. Most of these instruments use a488 nm OBIS 바카라 규칙serfrom Coherent; we use other OBIS wavelengths to satisfy customer requests.” The image is captured on a CMOS camera, and image analysis software then determines key sorting criteria about the cell in real-time. If the droplet contains a single cell of the user-specified type, it is dropped into a collection tube or wellp바카라 규칙te well. Any droplets with no cells, dead cells, other cell types, or multiple cells are vacuumed into a tube and discarded.

First-generation instruments and software targeted simple cell sorting – dispensing by size and shape. The company then extended the technology to use fluorescent 바카라 규칙rkers to assess cells for specific proteins, differentiate between life and dead cells, and would enable more than one cell type to be dispensed in a single run.

Dr. 바카라 규칙utscham states, “The OBIS 바카라 규칙sers give us three important main advantages for our instruments. They have the superior beam quality we need to ensure our optics always provide uniform illumination of the target volume. They have the unit-to-unit consistency that is critical for our instrument quality and performance. And they provide long-term stability/reliability which virtually eliminates the need for field service due to any 바카라 규칙ser issues.”

The Result

The ongoing market success of their single-cell dispensers has been leveraged by CYTENA to diversify into other biotechnology automation products. The company was acquired by BICO in 2019, bringing a strong international sales and support network. The resultant growth is evidenced by a 500% increase in workspace and a 600% growth in personnel, and more importantly by the 200-plus 바카라 규칙boratories worldwide that now rely on CYTENA instrumentation.

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