The QUANTOM Tx™ Microbial Cell Counter is an image-based, automated cell counter that can identify and count individual bacterial cells in mere minutes.
The sophisticated QUANTOM™ cell counting algorithm is the first of its kind, capable of detecting individual bacterial cells regardless of their diverse morphologies and arrangements. Multiple images of fluorescence-stained cells are captured and analyzed automatically for rapid and accurate bacterial cell counts.
Rapid
- Minutes to results
- No culturing required
Accurate
- Objective and no user-to-user variability
- No estimating based on colony forming units or turbidty
Single bacterium detection
- Regardless of cell shape, size, or arrangement
- Sophisticated bacterial cell counting software Known concentrations of beads were counted with the QUANTOM Tx.
Counting with the QUANTOM Tx™
Staining
The QUANTOM™ Total Cell Staining Dye is a green fluorescent nucleic acid stain that has been formulated to permeate the membranes of both gram positive and gram negative bacteria with ease. This dye stains both live and dead bacterial cells.
Immobilizing
Stained bacterial cells are mixed with QUANTOM™ Cell Loading Buffer I, loaded into QUANTOM™ M50 Cell Counting Slides, and spun in the QUANTOM™ Centrifuge to immobilize and evenly distribute the cells throughout the counting chamber to ensure accurate cell counting.
Counting
The QUANTOM Tx™ captures up to 20 high resolution images and counts the cells in each automatically. The highly sophisticated software can distinguish individual cells in various arrangements such as tight clusters or in sequence to produce accurate and reliable total bacterial cell counts.
Key Software Features
Declustering algorithm
Bacterial cells often exist in dense clusters, making cell detection a challenging feat. Colony counting is a highly variable and unreliable counting method, as it is only an estimate of the viable cells present. A colony could arise from a single cell or a thousand cells.
Even expensive flow cytometers and laser scanning cytometers register each particle, single or clustered, as a single event. In principle, individual cells in clusters can only be distinguished and counted with image-based counting methods.
The QUANTOM Tx™ has a novel cell detection and declustering algorithm that can accurately count individual bacterial cells in even the tightest clusters.
Customizable counting parameters
Although smaller and simpler than their eukaryotic counterparts, bacteria are an incredibly diverse group of organisms that come in multiple shapes, sizes, and arrangements.
The QUANTOM Tx™ gives users the power to adjust counting parameters to detect and count even the strangest shaped cells.
Data report generation
The QUANTOM Tx™ automatically saves up to 1000 counts onboard, as well as giving users the option to export count results via Wi-Fi or USB.
PDF reports can be generated and saved with the following:
- Total cell counts
- Cell images (up to 20)
- Counting parameters
- Histograms