Purchase of High Content Screening System

Supply, installation and training of High Content Screening System Operetta CLS equipment for the detailed analysis of a variety of cell types (including rare cells such as stem cells and antigen-specific T cells) and for more specialist applications including: imaging of primary cells, live cells and cells cultured in 3D systems, tumorigenesis analysis including colony detection, phagocytosis assays, size and shape analysis, quantification of cells/colonies and fluorescence; by TCAT (Tissues, Cells and Advanced Therapeutics), Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS). The following specific aspects of operetta CLS are strictly necessary for our research and are not provided by any other provider: — With 8 high-performance LEDs, the Operetta CLS offers an unsurpassed variety of excitation wavelengths for the entire range between ultraviolet and near-infrared. This flexibility is of immense importance for QC development of a wide variety of assays — The Operetta CLS has a user-accessible 8-position emission filter wheel, which can be equipped with barcode filters for error-free operation, and for optimal coincidence between excitation and emission source. .— The Operetta CLS can be equipped with 3 automated water immersion lenses with high numerical aperture of various magnifications (20x, 40x, 63x). This shortens the measurement time and improves the resolution in the z-direction; overall, this increases throughput in the analysis of three-dimensional structures. This is necessary for the exact analysis of the many different samples that are measured in our central department (tissue sections, tumor organoids, cell culture experiments, etc.). This technology is patented: EP1386189 B1, US7304793 B2 and EP1646902 B1, US7961384 B2. — The system automatically corrects displacements resulting from the 5x to the 40x or 63x lens by means of a fluorescent reference sample (QuasiperiodicGrid) firmly installed in the table. This ensures that the desired cells, cell complexes, or cell structures can be found again and again at the right level. Perkin Elmer also has a patent (US9582864). The ability to pre-scan and return to the same spot reduces the amount of time that cells are expose3d to incident illumination and therefore limits damage to the cells, this allows repeat analysis and temporal tracking. — That the equipment software offers advanced morphological characteristics that allow the quantification of various aspects of the shape and structure of objects, for example: elongation, symmetry, smoothness of the edge and spatial distribution of the intensity of the texture characteristics, — The system offers a method for machine learning (PhenoLOGIC) during analysis. This allows the software to identify different cell populations or regions and then automatically set the best parameters for optimal image segmentation and cell classification (patents to PhenoLOGIC:WO2013038224).