Microbial quality control testing is a crucial task for maintaining product integrity, safety, and regulatory compliance to keep drugs safe and effective for patients. But it can also be a lengthy process, requiring days or weeks to complete—days or weeks that can delay new therapies or lead to drug shortages and negative impacts on patient outcomes. And if done improperly, potential product recalls can do irrevocable damage to a drug’s reputation.
If your lab prepares its own reference materials for microbial QC, chances are a significant amount of time and resources are devoted to complex protocols, expensive equipment, and staff training to maintain internal control banks. If your lab uses off-the-shelf microbial QC products, you likely face challenges with lengthy prep times and quantification accuracy and consistency.
A newly launched line of reference materials from ATCC—the definitive resource for biological materials—promises to address these pain points. Dubbed MicroQuant™, the references feature a revolutionary single-use pellet format that rehydrates in just a minute, requires minimal handing, and is even convenient to store. And thanks to an innovative cryopreservation technology, MicroQuant™ delivers consistent quantitation and accurate, reproducible results.
MicroQuant is available in both high-titer (107 to 108 CFU per pellet) and low-titer (100 to 1,000 CFU per pellet) formats for Pseudomonas paraeruginosa, Bacillus spizizenii, Candida albicans, Aspergillus brasiliensis, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus. Each reference is manufactured by ATCC under ISO 17034, so you can trust that you are receiving high-quality, original source material. When assessed against comparable vendor products on the market, MicroQuant was the only single-use control that demonstrated a precise level of quantitation that was completely within both the low and high CFU target ranges for all six cultures.
MicroQuant references are also stable in refrigerator temperatures (2–8°C) for up to 6 months, making them easy to store and ready to use anytime.
So, instead of spending 3 to 14-plus days preparing reference materials and dedicating bench space and lab resources to maintaining your own banks, let MicroQuant streamline your microbial QC process. Not only will your lab save time and money—letting you focus on delivering new, innovative drugs—you will also get the peace of mind that your reputation is in the capable hands of ATCC’s best-in-class, precisely quantitated controls.