With in excess of 180 peer-reviewed citations and over 150 units sold worldwide, the GelCount has become a true ‘gold standard’ in cancer biology colony/spheroid counting. 

GelCount™ is an integrated, dedicated colony counter for processing tumour colony forming assays and is conceived to rapidly and accurately count as well as characterize mammalian cell colonies. Colonies can be adherent in nature (usually stained), or non-adherent, suspended either in liquid medium (spheroids) or in 3-dimensional semi-solid matrices such as soft agar and methylcellulose. Non-adherent cell colonies of this type do not typically require staining.

GelCount™ permits the user to go from colony samples to colony counts and additional statistics such as colony size information at the click of a button. Colonies are imaged, images transferred, processed and characterized and the data collated/exported from within a single, integrated hardware/software platform. Gone is the need to manually count colonies or the unsatisfactory alternative of imaging samples on one device, then transferring these to and processing them within an independent, compromised image analysis package.

Furthermore, the integrated approach also permits the archiving to disk of raw colony images, in support of full-functionality ‘off-line’ processing/re-processing even where the original samples are no longer available. 

GelCount™ is a cost effective and reliable solution to the problem of counting colonies manually. It not only has a dramatic effect on counting throughput but its inherent objectivity and consistency eliminates human error due to subjective interpretation, bias or plain fatigue – a particularly acute problem when manually counting under a microscope.

Using high depth-of-field scanning technology capable of single-pass, high-resolution imaging, combined with a convenient sample-loading mechanism and a dedicated powerful algorithm developed at Oxford Optronix, GelCount™ provides unsurpassed colony detection performance including resolution of overlapping colonies and differentiation of real colonies from debris or other artefacts, all within a powerful yet user-friendly and intuitive software user interface.

Importantly, the user is offered extensive control over the inclusion or exclusion of colonies based on colony size and colony shape-related parameters, as well as over general object detection sensitivity. 

An integrated colony counting platform
GelCount™ is an all-in-one solution for imaging, counting and characterizing adherent or non-adherent colonies on a single integrated hardware and accompanying proprietary PC software platform.

Dedicated and user-friendly
GelCount™ is provided with dedicated, highly sophisticated imaging and image analysis software featuring an intuitive, efficient and flexible user interface.

Objective and consistent ‘machine’ counting
Second-generation ‘CHARM’ algorithm objectively applies user-definable colony detection rules, including colony size thresholding, while distinguishing overlapping colonies and suppressing false positives due to contamination or staining/agar artefacts.

High-resolution on-screen view
Entire wells or Petri dishes can be conveniently viewed on-screen at high resolution.

Performance
Less than 15 minutes for imaging and processing of four 6-well plates*. High-resolution, high depth-of-field imaging allows single-pass detection of colonies as small as 30 µm in diameter in medium layers of up to 5 mm in depth.

Colony size information
Processing colony samples with the GelCount™ not only generates a count but also yields detailed colony size information in the form of a mean per well/dish, or a histogram distribution, or even on an individual colony basis if required. The ability to quantitatively measure the effects of anti-cancer therapeutic regimes not only on absolute colony numbers but also on colony size significantly extends the sensitivity of the colony forming assay by providing the user with hitherto unavailable information relating to colony growth dynamics.

Versatility
GelCount™ is suitable for the counting and analysis of classic adherent colonies and of non-adherent colonies in suspension (spheroids) or semi-solid media such as soft agar and methylcellulose. Furthermore, non-adherent colonies or spheroids in suspension do not generally require staining.

Flexibility
GelCount™ is compatible with multi-well plates (6-, 12-, 24-, 48- and 96-well), with Petri dishes (35 mm, 50/60 mm and 100 mm) and with T25 flasks**.

Excel® and image output
Colony counts and statistics are automatically exported to Microsoft® Excel®, while sample images can be saved in a raw image format for a permanent archive of colony samples and/or ‘off-line’ processing/re-processing on other workstations. Colony images can also be stored in a generic bitmap format for printing, presentations, etc.

Unlimited software licenses/installations
GelCount™ software may be installed on any number of workstations, allowing users to save colony images and to process them at their own convenience. 

Unlimited software updates
Our customer-focused service includes free and unlimited availability of software updates, fixes and enhancements for the lifetime of the product.

2-year product warranty
The GelCount™ is supplied with a full 2-year manufacturer’s warranty, covering defects in material or in workmanship. An optional extended warranty package, providing a total of 5 years of ‘peace of mind’ cover, including two annual maintenance services is available at the time of purchase.