Golden Electroporation; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle; Rad! Volocity Goes Modular

Front Page | Golden Electroporation; Recyclable Microarrays?; Rad! Volocity Goes Modular Courtesy of BTX GADGET WATCH | Golden Electroporation Scientists in high-throughput labs are no longer limited to chemical transfection technologies; thanks to BTX, they can opt to electroporate, instead. The San Diego-based company (www.btxonline.com) recently released a 96-well, gold-plated, disposable electroporation microplate--a high-throughput alternative to single-use cuvettes. Now, rather than performing electroporation--a DNA-delivery method that introduces holes in the cells' membranes with a jolt of electricity--one sample at a time, scientists can zap eight or 96 at once. A 384-well version is slated for release later this year. These plates are part of a product line--including software, a plate handler, and a pulse generator--unveiled at last December's American Society for Cell Biology annual meeting, but they are compatible with other manufacturers' pulse generators, too, says BTX general manager Bryan Bjorndal. Key to the plate's usefulness, says Bjorndal, is its gold coating. Most electroporation cuvettes are plated with aluminum, which is cytotoxic. BTX's gilded plates, in contrast, are more cell-friendly: "Cells can exist much better in a gold environment," he says. As a result, researchers can grow and freeze cells in these plates, minimizing cell handling. But don't bother trying to harvest the precious coating, says Bjorndal. "It's just a couple of microns thick." --Jeffrey M. Perkel Digitalvision PATENT WATCH | Reduce, Reuse, Recycle A Canadian company has received a US patent for a fiber optic-based biosensor that it says will screen for particular sequences in minutes, employing reusable cartridges.1 This news is welcome because DNA microarray experiments are time-consuming and expensive, with multiple experiments requiring multiple chips. The Fiber-Optic Nucleic Acid (FONA) direct-mode detection device, developed by Ulrich Krull of the University of Toronto and colleagues, consists of an array of optical fibers, each coated with a specific nucleic acid; an intercalating dye to signal hybridization; and a laser-based detector. The device's design makes the tethered probes part of the light-conducting waveguide, increasing sensitivity to such an extent that detection might be possible in real time, says Krull. The intention, he adds, is not to compete with existing microarray technologies, but to create "a lower-cost solution with better quantitative technology" to detect small sets of genes of particular interest. Waterloo, Ont.-based Virtek Vision International (www.virtek.ca), which owns FONA, received two publicly funded grants to develop applications: one for testing water sources for Escherichia coli, and another for prenatal screening, says Tamara Bond, Virtek's business development manager for FONA. Virtek is seeking investment partners to develop and commercialize the device. --Ivan Oransky 1. U.J. Krull et al., "Nucleic acid biosensor diagnostics," US patent 6,503,711, issued Jan. 7, 2003. Courtesy of Improvision SOFTWARE WATCH | Rad! Volocity Goes Modular Coventry, UK-based Improvision (www.improvision.com) has upgraded Volocity, its four-dimensional biological imaging system.1 The new version consists of a free core-visualization component, Volocity LE, and three add-on modules: Visualization, Classification, and Restoration. Volocity LE provides basic functionality: data import, archiving, low-level processing, and visualization. Users can render data in three dimensions and take virtual slices through the XY, XZ, or YZ planes. For more sophisticated features, including object measurement and tracking, image deconvolution, and advanced visualization, users must purchase additional modules. Few software packages exist to properly handle the complex, time-resolved datasets microscopists sometimes generate, explains company president Andrew Waterfall. "There's a big difference between processing your dataset as a true 3-D volume, rather than processing it as a series of slices," he says. À la carte, Classification costs $5,000 (US); Restoration, $10,000; and Visualization, $10,000. Current Volocity users can upgrade for free. According to Waterfall, response has been positive. In the words of user Barry Condron, biology professor, University of Virginia, "Volocity 2 rocks!" --Jeffrey M. Perkel 1. J.M. Perkel, "Imaging cells in four dimensions," The Scientist, 16[4]:42, Feb. 18, 2002.

Golden Electroporation; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle; Rad! Volocity Goes Modular

Front Page | Golden Electroporation; Recyclable Microarrays?; Rad! Volocity Goes Modular

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