BEACON QUEST™ SYSTEM

Microfluidics meets microscopy and flow cytometry

Cutting-edge optofluidic platform designed for academic, non-profit and government research

Overview

Beacon Quest™ Optofluidic System

The Beacon Quest™ is an automated 2-chip optofluidic system that allows you to run thousands of miniaturized single-cell assays in parallel and then recover cells of interest.

  • Patterned light is used to sort individual cells into NanoPen® chambers with volumes ranging from 0.25 nL to 1.7 nL
  • High-throughput miniaturized assays are run in parallel to identify phenotypes of interest
  • Single cells with phenotypes of interest can then be recovered for downstream processes
  • Designed to accelerate the pace of academic discovery
SINGLE PLATFORM SOLUTION

Accelerate the pace of academic discovery with the Beacon Quest™

Beacon Quest integrates a wide variety of capabilities necessary for understanding cellular phenomes, providing a connected view of biology.

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Assays performed quickly with as little as a single cell

NanoPen chambers are 100,000 times smaller in volume than a microwell. Isolate and assay a single cell within minutes. You won’t need to wait weeks for a larger quantity of cells. You have complete flexibility to run fully-automated assays, sequentially or simultaneously to unlock new discoveries and insights on a single platform.

Cellular Assay Types
  • lgG secretion
  • Multiple antigen screening
  • Cross-reactivity
  • Growth rate
  • Surface markers
  • Reporter gene assays
  • Ligand-blocking assay
  • Cell/cell interaction
  • Multiplexed cytokine assays
  • Cytotoxicity assays
  • Bead-based assays
  • Bulk fluorescence assays
  • Link phenotype to genotype
  • Other functional assays
MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN
"With the [Beacon] Platform, we are able to determine the phenotypic and functional characteristics of cells in real time, isolate specific cells of interest, and link the genomic profiles of these same cells using downstream assays. Other platforms are limited by the need to measure each of these parameters in isolation, but the Beacon and Lightning systems provide a more comprehensive view and allows us to home in on the cells that are actually responding to cancer neoantigens. This will play a large part in developing cell-based therapies that work for our patients."

— Dr. Anthony Zamora, Assistant Professor

Screen the right cells automatically and precisely

4 simple steps to your best cells

OEP fluidics uses light and millions of light-actuated pixels to move individual cells so they can be isolated, cultured, assayed and exported. Each cell or clone is imaged and monitored in real-time in a NanoPen® chamber on our OptoSelect® chips to provide rich visual data early and often. Our full platform and software suite deliver cell processing and deep profiling with more information about cell function than any other technology.

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1. Sort

Our software automatically detects individual cells and then uses patterned light to isolate single cells into NanoPen chambers.

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2. Culture

As cells expand fresh media is perfused across the chip, nutrients diffuse in and waste diffuses out while the software images the NanoPen chambers continuously – enabling cell counting, growth rate calculations, or other morphological characterization.

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3. Assay

Run thousands of assays in parallel using our NanoPen chambers that are 100,000 times smaller in volume than a microwell in a 96 well plate – enabling phenotypic characterization of individual or populations of cells.

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4. Recover

Selectively recover your best cells with phenotypes of interest from NanoPen chambers for downstream processing including sequencing or live cell recovery.

Dive deeper into the data with powerful software

Cell Analysis Suite (CAS®) runs all assay operations, from importing samples to exporting live cells of interest. Easy drag and drop workflow builder for flexible assay setup.

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Assay Analyzer (AA)

Filter, sort and visualize individual pens to review the history of each clone throughout your workflows and downselect cells or NanoPen chambers of interest. Compile your images and data into a PDF report with your new findings.

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Image Analyzer (IA)

Score assays, count cells, consolidate images, view and process time lapse images, and perform pseudo coloring with this image visualization application.

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BEACON QUEST SYSTEM
Accelerate Your Academic Discoveries

Simply fill out the form to request a chat with one of our experts.

In a 30-minute call, we’ll be able to answer your questions, show you how the Beacon Quest system can speed up your research, and share the most relevant case studies.