Synbiosis ProtoCOL 3 automated colony counter and software

Synbiosis has introduced a software module for the ProtoCOL 3 automated colony counter. The software is claimed to make Protocol 3 the world’s first commercial automatic microbial identification and counter of colonies cultured on CHROMagar plates and means that with minimal training, microbiologists can use the system to rapidly identify and enumerate all key clinical, water and foodborne pathogens.

The software module, which was developed in partnership with CHROMagar, ensures that the ProtoCOL 3 system can accurately identify any bacteria or yeast cultured on a CHROMagar plate in less than a minute, saving microbiologists hours of visually inspecting colonies and manually recording results. The system performs these tasks by utilising red, blue and green lighting to capture a lifelike colour image of the colonies on the plates.

The software module analyses the image and can distinguish between rose pink and dusty pink, as well as turquoise and steel blue. This allows precise identification of common pathogens, including Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, E.coli, Group B Streptococci, Listeria spp., Vibrio spp. and Pseudomonas spp. The system also simultaneous enumerates the different coloured colonies of each species, providing objective, consistent data and reducing operator errors, to generate accurate results which can be stored as images and Excel spreadsheets.

The product is suitable for clinical microbiologists as well as food, beverage and water quality control scientists looking to obtain precise microbial identification results and increase their colony counting throughput.