An alternative to traditional light box manual counting, a tedious task prone to operator errors and fatigue for laboratories that have a limited budget
Synbiosis, a manufacturer of automated microbiological systems, introduces the Acolyte automated colony counter for laboratories that have a limited budget yet need the speed and accuracy automation provides.
Acolyte has been developed as an alternative to traditional light box manual counting, a tedious task prone to operator errors and fatigue.
It is available with two levels of functionality, Click'n'Count and SuperCount.
The stylishly designed Acolyte takes up minimum bench space and features a revolutionary web-styled user interface.
The system comes complete with software, which can be quickly installed on an existing PC.
Acolyte features a live, full colour on-screen image that can be saved and printed to create professional reports.
Two arrays of LEDs allow incident, transmitted and darkfield illumination, enabling colonies on any plate type to be counted.
With Click'n'Count, colony counting is just a matter of pointing at each colony and clicking to count.
This is at least as fast as any light box counter, and offers many benefits including totally eliminating time consuming keying steps (and associated manual errors).
Each result is instantly stored in a printable results page with a time and date stamp for GLP compliance.
For users wanting to increase sample throughput, Synbiosis offers a fully automated version called SuperCount. This offers all the features of Click'n'Count with many additional benefits.
The software automatically corrects for background variations and different media types.
At the click of a button up to 500 colonies are counted in just one second, approximately 100 times faster than a manual enumeration.
This allows time savings of up to 90 per cent and will greatly increase laboratory productivity.
Simon Johns, International Product Manager for Synbiosis said: "The word acolyte means devoted servant and we believe that our Acolyte will prove to be just that for many scientists.
It is currently the most cost-effective automated colony counter to come on the market in over 20 years and is as affordable as a manual light box and pen system.
For any budget conscious microbiology laboratory that demands precise and rapid colony counting, Acolyte is the perfect choice."
