Automated colony counter and zone sizing system

Synbiosis has launched the ProtoCOL 2 system for rapid, accurate automated colony counting and zone measurement.

The system is an ergonomically designed imaging unit with dark screens to eliminate ambient light effects and improve imaging results. The unit contains a high-resolution camera and red, blue and green LED lighting integrated to a processor and software. The software is accessed via a touch-screen monitor sitting above the unit and features on-screen commands, allowing users to intuitively set their system up in minutes. These settings can be saved to make analysing the same plate types at a later date a quick one-touch process.

The ProtoCOL 2 system’s lighting method illuminates the plates in three different colours. The system’s camera captures each image and integrates them in seconds to generate high-definition, life-like images. This enables precise counts of difficult-to-see colonies and accurate measurements of zones with indistinct edges.

The results can be downloaded to a memory stick via the USB ports on the ProtoCOL 2. Alternatively, the system can easily be connected to a PC network allowing users to capture, print and save full-colour images or download numerical data to Excel.

The GLP-compliant ProtoCOL 2 software can be integrated into a 21 CFR Part 11 environment and is modular so users can cost-effectively customise their system to include the colony counting or zone sizing analysis programs which suit them.