Interested in cell-based assays to advance your COVID-19 research?

Spark® Cyto multi-mode plate reader merges reading, imaging and incubation in one single instrument for real-time insights into viral infections of cells. Spark Cyto allows experiments like virus plaque assay for virus quantification, luciferase expression-based reporter virus assays to monitor virus growth in cells or examine the effects of drugs on virus-infected cells via viability assays. Spark Cyto enables a range of experiments with conventional read modes or image-based analyses.

Monitoring cellular effects of COVID-19 treatments without compromises

Beyond supporting simple endpoint applications, the new Spark Cyto’s incubator functionalities allow real-time monitoring of live cells over a long period. Data can be acquired with conventional plate reader modes like absorbance, fluorescence or luminescence, as well as with sophisticated whole-well imaging in brightfield and fluorescence. The automatic image analysis delivers condensed well-averaged data and information on every single cell in the population – as a common cytometer does.

The system supports important applications for efficient COVID-19 research, including Cytopathic effect analysis (CPE), cell counting and proliferation, cell viability, cytotoxicity, antibody binding, antibody concentration, reporter applications such as eGFP- or Luc-reporter virus assay, virus plaque assays and much more.

Figure 1: Shows Spark Cyto output for (A) cell viability imaging of HeLa cells, (B) zoom-in with object segmentation to verify cell viability readout, (C) necrosis and apoptosis imaging of HeLa cells over a period of 300 min

Protect your lab personnel from virus exposure

The automatic lid lifter is a unique feature of Spark Cyto that allows loading lidded plates into the reader. The instrument removes the lid and manipulates the plates internally, thereby protecting the operator. Reagents or other substances can also be added internally with the Spark injector module to automate the complete assay – from reagent addition over incubation to readout – without exposing the operator to open plates.

Figure 2: Shows (A) the automatic lid lifter which can be used with the Humidity Cassette (B) or any conventional microplate in combination with the lid lifting discs (C). With the lid lifter microplate lids can be automatically removed inside the Spark to, for example, add reagents via the injector module (D) without exposing the operator to the open plate.