Datasheet: Live Single Cell Functional Analysis with Beacon Discovery™
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Optofluidic Instruments

Beacon Select
for Cell Line Development

Compress Timelines with Functional Single Cell Analysis

Highlights

High Quality, Value-Driven Cell Line Development

The Beacon Select™ is an advanced optofluidic system that automates and accelerates cell line development for bioproduction. It mimics nano bioreactor-like conditions, enabling multiple sequential functional assays to assess productivity, quality, and stability while maintaining cell line monoclonality. By streamlining and integrating cloning, functional screening, and selection into a single fully automated instrument, it significantly shortens development timelines and enhances scale-up success rates for bioproduction.

Why Choose the Beacon Select?
  • Boost efficiency by reducing development time by 50% and increasing throughput by 4x, while ensuring >99% monoclonality for regulatory filings.
  • Run up to 2 chips at once
  • Obtain high-throughput single-cell cloning and quality screening in just days with the ability to run up to 2 chips at once​
  • Quickly identify clones with desirable product quality attributes by running a variety of assays, including monoclonality, quality, and productivity, reducing the risk of late-stage failures and improving success rates during the scale-up process
  • Streamline clone identification with essential assays like monoclonality, quality, and productivity, reducing the risk of late-stage challenges and optimizing scale-up success rates
  • Accelerate your cell line development timelines while maintaining high quality and cost-effectiveness
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Experience the Power of the Beacon Select System

The Leading Functional Single Cell
Platform for Cell Line Development

At the core of the Beacon system is a combination of optics and nanofluidics called optofluidics. The OptoSelect® chips replace typical well plates. Each OptoSelect chip contains thousands of NanoPen® chambers, which replace wells on a microplate. This is where cells are selectively placed, cultured and characterized using a myriad of proprietary Beacon Platform assays.

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Key Product Features

  • Mid-level throughput with 2 nests that allows for up to 2 chips at a time
  • Positive pressure to protect the sample from contamination
  • Comprehensive assays to assess monoclonality, quality, and productivity
  • Selective cell cloning to improve clone productivity
  • Live cell recovery for export
  • Rapid, automated single-day workflow
  • Ability to assess multiple proteins, including monoclonal antibodies, bi-specific antibodies, and other therapeutic proteins
Applications

Understand the Life of Single Cells
with the Beacon Select​

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Target to Lead Molecule in Weeks, Not Months

Selective Cell Cloning can be used to reduce CLD timelines by gently sorting a pool of cells 2.5 weeks post transfection when cell viabilities are as low as 30%.

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Researcher Spotlight

Technology

Unique Features of the Beacon Technology

At the core of the Beacon technology is the OptoSelect® chip, which combines nanofluidics and Opto-Electro Positioning (OPE) technology, referred to as optofluidics. Optofluidics leverages light and millions of light-actuated pixels to manipulate cells and beads with precision, empowering precise isolation, and characterization of single cells at scale. Single cells with phenotypes of interest can then be recovered for further downstream analyses, including sequencing.

 

Opto Electrical Positioning (OEP) Technology

Provides Exquisite Control of Cells and Beads

  • Uses light to move cells around and into the NanoPens
  • Allows for thousands of parallel single cell experiments at once
 
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NanoPen Horizontal Design

Allows Continuous Media Perfusion

  • Provides minimal disruption of the contents in the NanoPens
  • Allows for exchange of oxygen, nutrients, and waste in and out of the NanoPens in a matter of seconds
  • Keeps cells alive and healthy for days to weeks
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Adaptable High-Throughput Chips

Tailor experiments to specific research needs with flexible chip formats. The Beacon Quest system supports multiple chip configurations, running up to 2 chips simultaneously. Whether running high-throughput immune profiling or focused cell therapy studies, the system offers the right balance of efficiency and precision.

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How It Works

Screen the Right Cells Automatically and Precisely

4 Simple Steps to Find the Best Cells

The Beacon platform automates single cell profiling using optofluidic technology, Optofluidics is able to move single cells or beads in large numbers so they can be isolated, cultured, assayed, and exported.

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1. Sort

Software detects individual cells and precisely positions them into NanoPen® chambers using patterned light.

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2. Culture

Cells grow in a continuously perfused environment, while real-time imaging enables dynamic data collection.

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3. Assay

Functionally profile cells through multi-step and multi-assay experiments.

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4. Export

Recover high-value cells for sequencing or live-cell applications.

Simultaneous Incubation and Screening of Thousands of Clones

The Opto Cell Line Development workflow allows for selection of clonal cell lines with optimal growth, productivity and quality profiles, using bioreactor-relevant on-chip assays. During the Opto Cell Line Development workflow, transfected cells are enriched, cloned, cultured, assayed, selected and recovered in a single automated process with minimal human intervention. This is compared to conventional clone selection methods where multiple steps must be performed sequentially on many different instruments.​

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Selection Based on Product Quality, Not Just Productivity

The Opto Assure assays minimize the risk of costly late stage failures by identifying top producing clones with desirable product quality attributes early on. The Opto Assure assay for aggregation enables direct detection of product aggregates within days of single-cell cloning. This lets you confidently identify and select clones that secrete high-quality complex molecules and develop better production cell lines faster.

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.

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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Powerful Software for Functional Single-Cell Analysis

The Beacon Platform includes the Cell Analysis Software (CAS) Suite, a robust toolset that allows researchers to design, execute, and analyze single cell experiments in real time. CAS enables fully customized and automated workflows, delivering high-dimensional insights into single cell heterogeneity, cell function, phenotype, and behavior.

World Class Support, Just a Click Away

Access protocols, manuals, technical bulletins, training webinars, and more through our support portal.
We’re here to ensure your success at every step.

Beacon Quest

Unleash the Full Potential of​
Your Single Cell Research

Complete the form to connect with us and discover how the Beacon Quest system can enhance your research adventure.

Our expert team will be able to answer your questions, show you how the Beacon Quest system works, and share the most relevant datasheets & case studies for your research.