Jul 29 2008
Nanopoint Inc., an award-winning developer of cellTRAY® Fluidics and Imaging System products, is announcing positive validation of its Model CT-2000 from early customers who range professionally from microfluidics system experts to award-winning pharmaceutical researchers. Full-scale commercial shipping of the cellTRAY Imaging System Model CT-2000, which offers the most advanced, on-microscope incubator and integrated fluidics system available for in vitro research, is slated to begin in September. Early adopters and customers have been brought on-line by Nanopoint's experienced team and already researchers in the field have begun using the integrated Model CT-2000 system which runs on an inverted microscope for extended periods of time, enabling time-lapse imaging of live cells over the course of several days.
Nanopoint's target markets include stem cell research, pharmaceutical, government and academic research, drug discovery, gene silencing, and biological drug production. Current customers are using the Model CT-2000 to research cellular signaling pathway mapping, hybridoma characterization, protein expression, cell culture and process development, apoptosis, G-protein coupled receptors, stem cells, insulin-producing beta cells and dendritic cells in the immune system. These early Model CT-2000 customers who represent the diverse research arenas using live cell imaging techniques have roundly applauded the integrated system.
Renowned pharmaceutical and nanotech researcher Mansoor Amiji commented on his laboratory's use of the cellTRAY Imaging System Model CT-2000, "Our group at Northeastern University has had a very positive experience with the cellTRAY microfluidics system and supporting hardware and software for continuous long-term analysis. The technical staff at Nanopoint has been extremely supportive of our efforts." Dr. Amiji is Professor and Associate Department Chairman, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences School of Pharmacy, Co-Director of Nanomedicine Education and Research Consortium
Axel Guenther, an acknowledged expert in microfluidics systems praised the Model CT-2000, "We are impressed by the Nanopoint CT-2000 platform and delighted to partner with Nanopoint in developing next generation lab-on-a-chip platforms for a range of different high-throughput live-cell imaging applications." Dr. Guenther is Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto.
"I'm quite proud of the reports we are receiving from our customers in the field who are providing extremely favorable feedback about the time-lapse imaging experiments they are able to run on the cellTRAY Imaging System Model CT-2000," said Cathy Owen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nanopoint, Inc. "The ability to run longer-term, live cell imaging experiments over extended periods of time is still quite limited in the majority of today's labs and our newest imaging system provides a critical technological breakthrough to life science and pharmacological researchers in private and academic laboratories around the world. We're providing the most advanced system available for in vitro research, an arena that is playing an increasingly important role in many areas of disease research, drug discovery, and therapeutic applications."
Until now, before the launch of Nanopoint's fully automated cellTRAY Imaging System Model CT-2000, there was no effective technology that allowed laboratory researchers to observe live cells and to acquire data from those same living cells over an extended periods of time ranging from two days to two weeks. Current methods of cell analysis involve living cells cultured in well plates and on microscope slide-sized microtiter plates for very brief periods of time.
Current tools limit the observation time of live cells to hours and also inhibit the ability to solve complex research questions. Current secondary screen technologies handicap progress because researchers spend large amounts of time trying to reproduce environments outside of the body fostering tremendous levels of inefficiency.
Nanopoint's cellTRAY-based systems have been carefully designed to enable scientists to easily move from their current style of research to a more precise live cell imaging system. Each of the products has been designed to allow a methodical migration to the miniaturized research platform starting with the cellTRAY®, a microscope slide-sized high precision etched well device that can be used with any laboratory equipment supporting slides, to the cellTRAY Imaging System Model CT-1000 which is an add-on to an upright or inverted microscope, to the cellTRAY Fluidics System Model CT-2000F and the cellTRAY Imaging System Model CT-2000 which can be easily integrated with an inverted microscope. Nanopoint's proprietary software provides the navigation, camera, shutter and filter controls, auto-focus, and microfluidics control necessary for today's demanding time-lapse live cell imaging applications.
Nanopoint's cellTRAY Fluidics System Model CT-2000F became available June 30, 2008 and the cellTRAY Imaging System Model CT-2000 starts shipping September 30, 2008.