Synbiosis

Synbiosis, a world-leading manufacturer of automated microbiological systems, is pleased to announce that the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA), has chosen to install sixteen
specially customised ProtoCOL, automated colony counting and zone sizing systems. The systems, which will be sited at every VLA unit across the UK, will be used to speed up testing
of veterinary antibiotics for therapeutic use and to collect and monitor zone size data for surveillance purposes. The VLA ProtoCOL systems, which consist of a computer controlled, high-resolution CCD camera
integrated with image analysis software, can read an entire plate, including measurement of inhibition zones and transcription of results, in minutes.

Synbiosis is pleased to introduce its new ProtoCOL V1.4 colony counting and inhibition zone sizing software, designed to save microbiologists valuable time, by automating many routine plate based image analysis tasks. The new ProtoCOL software is built for maximum flexibility and can be used to analyse images of the same or different coloured colonies on pour, spiral or surface inoculated plates and 3M Petrifilm, as well as measure inhibition zones on Single Radial immunodiffusion(SRD) plates, and around antibiotic disks. The software, based on the latest Windows platform, has all the useful icons on one screen, so it is quick and simple for microbiologists to navigate and begin their image capture and analysis, with minimal training.

Synbiosis is pleased to announce that its ProtoCOL automated colony counter is being successfully used at prestigious
UK research institute, The Institute of Child Health (ICH) to help rapidly assess the effectiveness of novel vaccines against bacterial pneumonia. Lindsey Ashton, Laboratory Manager of the Immunobiology Unit at ICH explained: “The ProtoCOL is recognised by the UK’s National Institute of Biological Standards and The University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA (the originators of the modified OPKA assay) as being an efficient tool for automating bacterial counts from this assay. So to maintain consistency, which is important in clinical trials, we installed a ProtoCOL and have been using it daily for a year now.”

Synbiosis, has announced its ProtoCOL automated colony counter is being successfully used by the Skin Research Centre (SRC) at the University of Leeds, one of Europe’s leading
dermatology centres, to rapidly test the effectiveness of new anti-microbial therapies to treat acne, dermatitis and other skin diseases. Martin Smith for Synbiosis commented: “We are
delighted so see the ProtoCOL being used routinely at such a major dermatology centre as the SRC. The SRC’s successful utilisation of the ProtoCOL to help evaluate new treatments for skin conditions shows this system is an excellent tool
for any laboratory that wants to
produce rapid, well documented results from clinical trials of antimicrobial
therapies.”