“I can finally forget about those many hours spent at the microscope”
Dr Scanu, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
“The detection and sorting algorithms seem very powerful and flexible”
Dr Williams, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA
“[the] GelCount [is] an absolutely fabulous option for counting clonogenic assays”
Dr Panchabhai, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA
“..the GelCount instrument has by far the most intuitive software”
Dr. Andersen, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA
“The [..] GelCount has been a fantastic addition to our laboratory setup”
Dr Carruthers, Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow, UK
Pioneering instrumentation
for the bio-sciences sector
4.8 / 5.0 | 16 reviews
The leading colony and spheroid counter for cancer biologists
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The Colony Forming Assay and colony counting is universally recognized as the gold standard method for measuring the effects of radiation, chemotherapeutic drugs and other agents on mammalian cell viability.
However, manually counting the resulting cell colonies is a thankless and laborious task in which consistent objectivity is difficult to achieve.
GelCount™ is an easy-to-use, PC software-operated colony counter that automates the detection, counting and analysis of mammalian cell colonies in multi-well plates, Petri dishes and T25 flasks. Colonies can be adherent or non-adherent (in semi-solid 3D matrices such as soft agar or methylcellulose, or free-floating).
GelCount thereby provides a powerful and cost-effective alternative to the subjective and labour-intensive task of manual colony counting in the gold standard colony forming cell assay, also referred to as the clonogenic assay, the cell survival assay or the tumor cloning assay.
Summary applications include:
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GelCount™ is an all-in-one solution for imaging, counting and characterizing adherent or non-adherent colonies on a single integrated hardware and accompanying proprietary PC software platform. Colonies are imaged, images transferred to a PC, images processed and characterized and the data collated/exported from within a single, integrated platform. Gone is the unsatisfactory alternative of imaging samples on one device, then transferring these to and processing them on a separate image analysis package.
GelCount is an integrated imaging and software platform. Images are exported directly to a PC for processing and analysis.
GelCount permits the user to go from colony samples to colony counts and additional statistics such as colony size information at the click of a button via an intuitive and simple user interface. A second-generation ‘CHARM’ algorithm objectively applies user-definable colony detection rules, including inclusion or exclusion of colonies based on colony diameter, while distinguishing overlapping colonies and suppressing false positives due to contamination or artefacts. GelCount thereby not only dramatically enhances throughput but its inherent objectivity and consistency eliminates human error due to subjective interpretation, bias or plain fatigue – a particularly acute problem when manually counting under a microscope.
Entire wells or Petri dishes can be conveniently viewed on-screen at high resolution.
Using single pass, high depth-of-field scanning technology, combined with a convenient sample-loading mechanism, GelCount provides unsurpassed colony detection performance including resolution of overlapping colonies and differentiation of real colonies from debris or other artefacts. Less than 15 minutes for imaging and processing of four 6-well plates*. Detection of colonies as small as 30 µm in diameter in medium layers of up to 5 mm in depth.
Processing colony samples with the GelCount not only generates a count but also yields detailed colony diameter information in the form of a mean per well/dish, or a histogram distribution, or even on an individual colony basis if required. The ability to quantitatively measure the effects of anti-cancer therapeutic regimes not only on absolute colony numbers but also on colony size significantly extends the sensitivity of the colony forming assay by providing the user with hitherto unavailable information relating to colony growth dynamics.
Colony diameter can be viewed in a customizable histogram (per well/dish), or exported as numerical data
GelCount is suitable for the counting and analysis of classic adherent colonies and of non-adherent colonies in suspension (spheroids) or semi-solid media such as soft agar and methylcellulose. Furthermore, non-adherent colonies or spheroids in suspension do not generally require staining.
GelCount is compatible with multi-well plates (6-, 12-, 24-, 48- and 96-well), with Petri dishes (35 mm, 50/60 mm and 100 mm) and with T25 flasks**. Furthermore, it fully supports the archiving to disk of raw colony images, in support of full-functionality ‘off-line’ processing/re-processing even where the original samples are no longer available
Colony counts and statistics are automatically exported to Microsoft® Excel®, while sample images can be saved in a raw image format for a permanent archive of colony samples and/or ‘off-line’ processing/re-processing on other workstations. Colony images can also be stored in a generic bitmap format for printing, presentations, etc.
Microsoft Excel output Bitmap reproduction of a 6-well plate
GelCount software may be installed on any number of workstations, allowing users to save colony images and to process them at their own convenience.
Our customer-focused service includes free and unlimited availability of software updates, fixes and enhancements for the lifetime of the product.
The GelCount is supplied with a full 2-year manufacturer’s warranty, covering defects in material or in workmanship. An optional extended warranty package, providing up to 6 years of ‘peace of mind’ cover, including preventative maintenance servicing is available at the time of purchase.
*Resolution-dependent; quoted example is for typical high-resolution imaging of soft agar colonies.
**Sarstedt® T25 flasks (model 83.1810) and Falcon® T25 flasks (model 353082) supported.
The Colony Forming Assay and colony counting is universally recognized as the gold standard method for measuring the effects of radiation, chemotherapeutic drugs and other agents on cell viability. However, manually counting the resulting cell colonies is a thankless and laborious task in which consistent objectivity is difficult to achieve.
GelCount is an easy-to-use, PC software-operated colony counter that automates the detection, counting and analysis of mammalian cell colonies in Petri dishes, flasks and multi-well plates.
GelCount provides a powerful and cost-effective alternative to the subjective and labour-intensive task of manual colony counting in laboratory techniques based on the colony forming cell assay, also referred to as the clonogenic assay, the cell survival assay or the tumor cloning assay.
GelCount will be of interest primarily to cancer biologists involved in drug discovery, radiobiology or toxicology research.
View entire wells on-screen
Multi-well plates are viewed one well at a time with simple zoom and ‘panning’ controls providing intuitive image navigation so that any region can be quickly viewed at high resolution for close-up verification of colony detection. Entire well or dishes can be viewed on-screen. Detected colonies are highlighted by red demarcation. The current colony count and related colony statistics such as mean colony diameter are displayed in a summary panel in the left margin.
Generate colony size histograms
GelCount not only generates a colony count but automatically calculates colony size, which can be presented and exported as a distribution or as raw, per colony data.
Sophisticated colony-detection controls
Colony detection is fully user-definable from within the ‘CHARM Optimizer’ utility (highlighted), which provides the user with control over overall detection sensitivity as well as the ability to include or exclude colonies based on size. The effect of any such adjustments can be previewed in real-time and detection preferences stored as templates for future experiments. GelCount achieves outstanding counting proportionality and reproducibility by objective and consistent application of these user-definable settings.
Exportation to Excel®
GelCount’s data exportation options are extensive, from basic colony counts and mean colony statistics to full digital image archiving and per-colony raw data. Summary numeric data, including colony counts and colony statistics are exported directly into Microsoft Excel®.
Easily export whole-plate images
Images of colony plates or dishes can be saved in a general-purpose bitmap format (for printing, presentations etc.) or in a raw image format, which supports processing in ‘off-line’ mode on any independent workstation with the software installed.
“The [Oxford] Optronix GelCount has been a fantastic addition to our laboratory setup, allowing rapid and efficient counting of clonogenic assays which would otherwise be a very time consuming and onerous process. The easy to use software reliably identifies colonies and greatly improves consistency in analysing these experiments. I would be happy to recommend the [Oxford] Optronix GelCount to other researchers.”
Dr. Ross Carruthers, Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow, Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow, UK
“We have now taken this best practice of industrialized colony counting and purchased the [GelCount] for our drug discovery activities at the Institute for Applied Cancer Science, University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center.” “..the GelCount instrument has by far the most intuitive software and you don’t have to be a daily user to remember the workflow and settings etc.”
Dr. Jannik N. Andersen, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, United States
“With the GelCount from Oxford-Optronix I can finally forget about those many hours spent at the microscope trying to get a number of the amount of colonies in my soft agar experiments. Now I can easily image all the wells, and after choosing my desired settings, in a short time I can have the number of my colonies and their size. The GelCount allows me to follow the growing of the colonies in time by simply acquiring different images during the weeks, so that I can see the effects of the different sample treatments. Definitely, the use of the GelCount saves a lot of my time and now I can perform more experiments in a shorter time, with the additional advantage of acquiring a complete and clear image of the entire well for presentation purposes.”
Dr. Tiziana Scanu, The Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI-AVL), Amsterdam, The Netherlands
“The detection and sorting algorithms seem very powerful and flexible, and the resolution at the high end is really quite remarkable. The ability to scale resolution down to what you need is a real time-saver, especially if you have large stained colonies. The high resolution capability is nice for tracking the growth progress of non-stained colonies as well.”
Dr. Ryan Williams, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, United States
“I have used the GelCount for over 6 months. The machine reduces the analysis time considerably when compared to manual counting, and the results are similar between them. It has also the added bonus of reducing the subjectivity that could arise by manual counting, making the clonogenics more reliable. In addition, Oxford Optronix provides very good technical support. Overall, I would recommend this product as it reduces the time and increases the confidence in your results.”
Dr. Natividad Gomez-Roman, Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow, Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow, UK
“We in Dr. Victor Levin’s Lab have found [the] GelCount [to be] as an absolutely fabulous option for counting clonogenic assays. The results are objective, reproducible and accurate. Earlier, we had been doing the same assays manually and now we are in a position to appreciate the amount of subjective error one could have. The most important output with this machine is the ‘volume’ [statistic] of the colonies in addition to the colony count. We truly recommend this magical piece of [equipment] to all those interested in doing clonogenic assays and other 3D studies.. It is cost effective and saves a whole lot of time.. go for it!”
Dr. Sonali Panchabhai and Dr Yoshinori Kajiwara, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, United States
(Last updated: May 2019)
The GelCount is a gold-standard platform for the processing of colony and spheroid formation assays, having been cited in hundreds of peer-reviewed articles in the cancer biology literature over the past 10 years.
Click below to view our exhaustive list of GelCount literature citations.
Select recent citations:
Kessel D (2019). Pathways to Paraptosis After ER Photodamage in OVCAR-5 Cells. Photochem Photobiol. 2019 Mar 29. doi: 10.1111/php.13103. [Epub ahead of print]
Wienholz F, Zhou D, Turkyilmaz Y, Schwertman P, Tresini M, Pines A, van Toorn M, Bezstarosti K, Demmers JAA and Marteijn JA (2019). FACT subunit Spt16 controls UVSSA recruitment to lesion-stalled RNA Pol II and stimulates TC-NER. Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 Feb 4. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkz055. [Epub ahead of print]
Cheshire P, Zhafira AS, Banakh I, Rahman MM, Carmichael I, Herson M, Cleland H and Akbarzadeh S (2019). Xeno-free expansion of adult keratinocytes for clinical application: the use of human-derived feeder cells and serum. Cell Tissue Res. 2019 Jan 21. doi: 10.1007/s00441-018-02986-5. [Epub ahead of print]
Lee J, Lim B, Pearson T, Choi K, Fuson JA, Bartholomeusz C, Paradiso LJ, Myers T, Tripathy D and Ueno NT (2019). Anti-tumor and anti-metastasis efficacy of E6201, a MEK1 inhibitor, in preclinical models of triple-negative breast cancer. Cancer Res Treat. 2019 Apr 15. doi: 10.1007/s10549-019-05218-8. [Epub ahead of print]
Jurmeister S, Ramos-Montoya A, Sandi C, Pértega-Gomes N, Wadhwa K, Lamb AD, Dunning MJ, Attig J, Carroll JS, Fryer LG, Felisbino SL and Neal DE (2018). Identification of potential therapeutic targets in prostate cancer through a cross-species approach. EMBO Mol Med. 2018 Mar;10(3). pii: e8274. doi: 10.15252/emmm.201708274McDaniel NK et al. (2018). MERTK mediates intrinsic and adaptive resistance to AXL-targeting agents. Mol Cancer Ther. 17(11), 2297-2308
Ha JR, Ahn R, Smith HW, Sabourin V, H?bert S, Cepeda Cañedo E, Im YK, Kleinman C, Muller WJ and Ursini-Siegel J (2018). Integration of distinct ShcA signaling complexes promotes breast tumor growth and tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance. Mol Cancer Res 16(5), 894-908
Xu H, Wang T, Yang C, Li X, Liu G, Yang Z, Singh PK, Krishnan S and Ding D (2018). Supramolecular Nanofibers of Curcumin for Highly Amplified Radiosensitization of Colorectal Cancers to Ionizing Radiation. Adv Funct Mate 2018, 1707140. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201707140
Piscitello D, Varshney D, Lilla S, Vizioli MG, Reid C, Gorbunova V, Seluanov A, Gillespie DA and Adams PD3 (2018). AKT overactivation can suppress DNA repair via p70S6 kinase-dependent downregulation of MRE11. Oncogene 37(4), 427-438
Carter RJ, Nickson CM, Thompson JM, Kacperek A, Hill MA and Parsons JL (2018). Complex DNA Damage Induced by High Linear Energy Transfer Alpha-Particles and Protons Triggers a Specific Cellular DNA Damage Response. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 100(3), 776-784
Li T, Wang Z, Hou YF and Li YY (2017). Pim-3 Regulates Stemness of Pancreatic Cancer Cells via Activating STAT3 Signaling Pathway. J
Cancer 8(9), 1530-1541
Baba Y, Tamura T, Satoh Y, Gotou M, Sawada H, Ebara S, Shibuya K, Soeda J and Nakamura K (2017). Panitumumab interaction with TAS-
102 leads to combinational anticancer effects via blocking of EGFR-mediated tumor response to trifluridine. Mol Oncol 11(8), 1065-1077
Murai S, Ando A, Ebara S, Hirayama M, Satomi Y and Hara T (2017). Inhibition of malic enzyme 1 disrupts cellular metabolism and leads to
vulnerability in cancer cells in glucose-restricted conditions. Oncogenesis 6(5), e329
| PHYSICAL | |
|---|---|
|
Imaging method |
High resolution 16-bit greyscale CCD line imager, visible light trans-illumination |
|
Imaging resolution |
300 dpi – 2,400 dpi, user selectable |
|
Depth of field |
0 – 5mm effective, above well base |
|
Sample loading method |
Removable loading tray, latching into a software-controlled motorized drawer |
|
Plasticware supported |
Multi-well plates (6, 12, 24, 48 and 96-well plates with/without lids; 35, 50/60 and 100mm Petri dishes with/without lids; selected T25 flasks. |
|
Loading tray capacity |
Up to 4 multi-well plates; up to 24 Petri dishes; up to 8 T25 flasks |
|
PC interface |
USB 2.0 (x2) |
|
Dimensions |
155mm x 560mm x 450mm (H x W x D) |
|
Weight |
20 kg |
|
Power requirements |
100 – 240V ~ 1.5A, 50-60 Hz; 2 x T1.6A fuse |
|
Storage temperature |
10 – 40°C |
|
Operating temperature |
15 – 30°C |
|
Operating humidity |
0 – 70% (non condensing) |
| PERFORMANCE | |
|
Min. resolvable colony diameter |
Approx. 30 µm (at 2,400 dpi image resolution) |
|
Typical acquisition time |
12 minutes (four 6-well plates at 1,200 dpi) |
|
Colony detection |
CHARM II™ (Compact Hough and Radial Map) image processing algorithm, proprietary to Oxford Optronix Ltd., dedicated to colony detection and size characterization. |
|
Colony types supported |
Adherent: stained (methyl blue, crystal violet, or equivalent). |
|
Counting variability |
< 5% for repeated analysis of the same sample |
|
Numerical data output |
Automated exportation to Excel® of colony counts, mean colony diameter, area, volume and other ‘statistics’ per well/dish. Optional ‘csv’ output of per-colony data and/or statistics histograms. |
|
Image output |
Per well/dish or compound bitmap images for general purpose importation/printing. Per well/dish raw images for ‘off-line’ image analysis and/or archiving. |
GelCount™ is an integrated hardware and software platform that semi-automatically images multi-well plates or Petri dishes arising from colony forming assays and processes the images to yield a colony count as well additional parameters such as colony size distributions, all of which can be conveniently imported into Microsoft Excel.
GelCount™ is the first and only imaging system conceived specifically for the objective and reproducible detection, counting and analysis of non-adherent mammalian cell colonies in semi-solid media or suspension, an otherwise painstaking procedure carried out under a microscope.
GelCount™ combines advanced, high-resolution / high depth-of-field CCD scanning hardware with a software-controlled sample loading mechanism that automatically sends images of colony samples to a PC via a USB2 bus. Image processing occurs via proprietary software residing on the PC incorporating a powerful, purpose-written ‘CHARM’-based algorithm.
GelCount™ will be of interest primarily to cancer biologists utilizing the colony forming assay to quantify the efficacy of anti-cancer drug candidates and other treatment regimes on cells in culture. Secondary applications for GelCount™ may include the cell proliferation assay, the invasion assay or bacterial and yeast colony counting applications.
No. GelCount™ will not reliably detect highly ‘diffuse’ colonies (e.g. classic CFU-G/M colonies) or highly irregular colonies (e.g. classic BFU-E colonies). The CHARM colony-detection algorithm is not conceived for colony typing based on colony ‘morphology’.
Yes! The GelCount™ is perfectly suited to imaging and accurately processing stained, adherent cell colonies on multi-well plates, Petri dishes and T25 flasks. For those familiar with its predecessor (the ColCount™), the GelCount™ provides almost 100% ‘backward compatibility’.
Generally no, GelCount™ will normally detect unstained colonies very effectively. Performance may be enhanced in certain cases (e.g. high background, or very small colonies) by the use of MTT-based metabolic stains (these do not stain the medium; recommended protocols available on request).
Yes. While not a primary application, GelCount™ can be used very successfully to image and count bacterial or yeast cell colonies on standard, non-opaque agar plates (example images available on request).
Strictly speaking no. GelCount™ does not feature magnifying optics and was conceived to count colonies of typically 20 or more cells rather than individual cells. However, at its maximum resolution setting GelCount™ is capable of distinguishing individual adherent cells, provided they are well stained and discrete. Thus, under ideal conditions, GelCount™ may be useful for quantifying the output of cell proliferation assays (example images available on request).
The software provides extensive user-optimization of colony detection parameters. Primarily this involves setting minimum and maximum colony diameter thresholds, colony shape parameters and overall sensitivity levels. Crucially, user-generated detection settings can be stored as templates and recalled during future counting sessions.
Depending on colony morphology (‘compactness’), spacing between colonies and background conditions, GelCount™ can readily detect colonies as small as 30 ?m in diameter at the maximum resolution setting.
GelCount is compatible with 6-, 12-, 24-, 48- and 96-well plates (up to 4 plates of any one type may be imaged simultaneously), as well as with 35 mm (up to 24), 50 mm (up to 12) and 100mm (up to 4) Petri dishes. GelCount is also compatible with certain T25 flasks.
Throughput is primarily limited by the speed of image acquisition, which in turn is a function of the chosen imaging resolution and plate/dish type. Typical processing time (image acquisition plus software processing) for four 6-well plates containing adherent, stained colonies is approximately 6 minutes (600 dpi imaging). Typical processing time for four 6-well plates containing non-adherent colonies in soft agar is approximately 12 minutes (1,200 dpi imaging). The worst case scenario is four 96-well plates imaged at maximum resolution (2,400 dpi), in which case total processing time is approx. 45 minutes.
Yes! Up to four multi-well plates, up to four 100 mm Petri dishes, up to twelve 50 mm Petri dishes, or up to twenty-four 35 mm Petri dishes may be loaded and processed simultaneously.
At the present time GelCount™ does not support ‘off-the-shelf’ stacker or robotic sample loading solutions.
The GelCount™ operating software is only available for PC platforms. Mac OS X and the Apple PC platform is NOT presently supported. However the GelCount software can be run in ‘off-line’ image analysis mode on Mac computers featuring Intel® processors via the Apple Boot Camp application (or third-party virtualisation software) where a licensed copy of Windows 7 or Windows 10 is installed.
Minimum recommended PC specifications are: AMD or Intel dual/multi-core processor @ 2 GHz or above; 8 GB or above of system memory; discrete graphics accelerator with 512 MB or above (not required with processors featuring on-die GPU, e.g. desktop Intel® i3, i5, i7, or ‘APU’ processors by AMD); two spare USB2 ports; Windows® 7 or Windows® 10 operating systems. An installation of Microsoft® Excel® is required to support basic data output functionality.
Yes, depending on geographical location we will try to arrange for an on-site demonstration of our products by an experienced product specialist. Ideally this will involve imaging representative samples prepared by the user to maximise the benefit of the demonstration. On-site demonstrations are usually free of charge and can typically be arranged at 2 – 8 weeks notice. Alternatively, we also offer live screen-share/teleconference-based introductions and demonstrations, which can be arranged at shorter notice. An on-site product loan may also be considered. Please contact our sales team for further details.
Sample loading trays
GelCount™ supports multi-well plates (6-, 12-, 24-, 48- and 96-well), Petri dishes (35 mm, 50 mm and 100 mm) and selected T25 flasks* via dedicated sample loading trays depicted above.
*Presently supported are Falcon® 'model 353 082' T25 flasks (6-place tray) and Falcon® 'model 353 108' T25 flasks (8-place tray)
Performance PC
High specification, small form factor and energy efficient Dell desktop PC's, accompanied by large wide-screen, full HD monitors are available to order with the GelCount. These are supplied with GelCount software pre-installed and are pre-configured, providing a full 'turnkey' solution to the end user.
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