Couldn't do without it

CRUK-Manchester Institute
Drug Discovery
Senior Bioscientist

Overall

Performance

Ease-of-Optimization

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Company:

Oxford Optronix Ltd

Product Name:

GelCount™ Tumour Colony Counter

Catalog Number:

GELCOUNT

I work in drug discovery and use colony formation assays, mainly in 6-well plates, to determine the effect of compounds on the clonogenic potential of cells. I have examined both the effect of a number different compounds on one cell line and have also looked at the effect of a smaller number of compounds on many different cell lines. This generated, over a couple of years, more than 1000 6-well plates alone. I needed to find a way of automating the colony counting and having seen this being used at a Pharma company decided to purchase the product. It also appeared to be the most reliable and best value for the money. I can't rate it highly enough.

Experimental Design and Results Summary

Application

Colony formation assays

Starting Material

Multiple cell lines, 6-well plates, multiple compounds

Protocol Overview

Scanning and assessing a number of colonies per well

Tips

Make sure the masks are slightly smaller than the well size. It doesn't do very diffuse colonies.

Results Summary

It successfully counted colonies from 10-20 different cell types, with many different compounds. In all, over 1000 6-well plates have been analysed with it.

Features Summary

Really quick scanning

Additional Notes

These opinions are my own and do not infer a recommendation by Manchester University or Cancer Research UK for the product. I haven't been paid by Oxford Optronix to write this review.

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Summary

The Good

It's quick, reliable and removes any human bias in colony counting

The Bad

Doesn't do diffuse colonies - you'll have to manually count those.

The Bottom Line

It has saved me month's worth of time and given results I can rely on. Can't rate it highly enough.

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