New study reveals boom in live cell microscopy


According to MME President Barbara Foster, her company has been tracking this trend for over a year. One outcome of their investigation is the clear connection between the protocols used in traditional research biology and emerging protocols such as cell-based microarrays used in drug discovery and biotechnology. “Big pharma and designer biotech firms are both looking to live cells as a more realistic approximation of human chemistry,” said Ms. Foster, “but they face challenges both in consistency of research design and in maintaining cell viability. Hopefully, this major shift in basic cell research will help to solve those problems more quickly, opening the door for better drug testing and more predictive disease diagnostics.”

On a more fundamental level, this trend is also changing the choice of microscope configuration. Until recently, approximately two out of three research biologists used upright microscopes, the type most conventionally used with microscope slides. MME’s research indicates a major shift to inverted systems, ideal for the petri dishes, growth flasks, and well plates used more extensively for culturing and maintaining cell viability. A tabulation of live cell use versus projected microscope sales for 2002 found that projected sales for inverted stands outranked uprights by 3:2 among this group.

Further details of the study are available at www.MicroscopyMarket.com.
 
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