As next-generation precision medicine grows, so does the need for broader accessibility to cutting-edge technologies. To meet this demand, Bruker Cellular Analysis has introduced the Beacon Quest™ optofluidic system, a two-chip optofluidic system that features Opto T Cell Profiling workflows for immunotherapy translational research, Opto Plasma B Discovery workflow and Opto Memory B Discovery workflows for lead antibody selection, and Opto Cell Line Development workflows for high throughput cloning . This system’s design caters to the research and budgetary needs of academic, non-profit, and government institutions. At less than $1M, it offers a more affordable alternative to the higher-throughout Beacon® optofluidic system.
However, despite its more affordable price point, the Beacon Quest™ optofluidic system doesn’t compromise on features. With the ability to run thousands of miniaturized single-cell assays in parallel and recover cells of interest, the Beacon Quest system is capable of greatly accelerating the pace of scientific discovery.
Maximizing Optofluidic Technology for Single-Cell Analysis and Antibody Discovery Workflows
The new Beacon Quest System leverages the same optofluidic system as the original Beacon system, using patterned light to transport and sort individual cells into NanoPen® chambers. This enables a wide range of workflows to characterize single-cell functionality, and allows cells of interest to be exported for downstream use and analysis.
Beacon Quest offers a variety of assays to profile single T cells, including detection of cytokine secretion, cytotoxicity, and cell surface markers with the potential to study proliferation and serial cytotoxicity. The resulting analysis can be used to identify cells with phenotypes of interest and guide recovery of the same cells for downstream assays such as transcriptome profiling and TCRSeq. As a result, researchers gain deeper insights into underlying biology by analyzing molecular mechanisms associated with polyfunctional T cells, establishing correlations between polyfunctionality and cytotoxicity for identifying desirable phenotypes, and linking them to T cell receptor sequences of the same cells.
The Beacon Quest system provides access to a number of workflows, including the Opto T Cell Profiling workflow for comprehensive profiling of T cells at a single-cell level. Researchers can then export cells with phenotypes of interest for transcriptome profiling and TCRSeq. The system also features the Opto Plasma B Discovery workflow and Opto Memory B Discovery workflows, enabling antibody discovery to accelerate antibody screening and improve hit generation, as well as the Opto Cell Line Development workflow which enables high throughput cloning, screening, and selection of top-performing cells.
The Future of Precision Medicine
The Beacon Quest system is an exciting development for precision medicine. Bruker Cellular Analysis’ approach of making this technology more accessible to researchers from academic, non-profit, and government institutions opens up new avenues for progress and discovery. With this innovative system, scientists can now conduct immunotherapy translational research with greater ease and affordability, unlocking new insights into the biological mechanisms that drive disease and opening up the potential for more effective treatments and improved patient outcomes.
If you’re ready to discover how the Beacon Quest with Opto T Cell Profiling workflows can help you advance your discoveries, download our new Beacon Quest Brochure.