Discussion

Monolayer cell cultures are essential for multiple research areas in life sciences and biotechnology. Calculation of cell confluency and cell concentration is needed for culture routine but may be used also as a cytotoxicity endpoint in drug research. However, most cell culture measurement techniques require the culture growth to be stopped. We have assessed an innovative method for measuring confluency and cell number in monolayer without detaching cells or stopping cell growth. The prototype system MC3100, developped by Salamander Biosciences is based on microscopic image analysis and an objective method for measuring cell confluency. We compared this method with traditional cell concentration measurement methods. The MC3100 has been designed to become a low-cost small-size high-throuput screening solution for researchers in life sciences.