Synbiosis: Automated Colony Counting Accelerates Development of Novel Pneumococcal Vaccines

19th February 2004. Cambridge, UK: Synbiosis, a world-leading manufacturer of automated colony counters, is pleased to announce that scientists in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), USA, a centre of excellence for microbiology, are using the ProtoCOL system to save time with evaluating new pneumococcal vaccines.

Researchers in the Department of Pathology at UAB are using the ProtoCOL as part of an improved opsonophagocytic killing assay (OPKA). The system automatically counts surviving antibiotic-resistant pneumococci on Todd-Hewitt agar plates with yeast extract and an agar overlay containing antibiotics and 2,3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TCC). The pneumococci plated out are those that survived the opsonizing effect of antibodies induced with different pneumococcal vaccines.

Professor Moon Nahm, M.D, Director of Clinical Immunology at UAB said: “We found colony counting for the OPKA was tedious and time consuming so we evaluated various counters to speed up the process. However, the low contrast between the medium and colonies meant it was difficult to distinguish between the two. Therefore, we added TCC to the plates to colour the colonies red. On re-evaluation of the systems we found the ProtoCOL had many subtle features, including excellent data transfer, but for us it was the enhanced contrast that led us to purchase.”

“Using the ProtoCOL we can instantly count thousands of colonies, even ones of less than 0.2 mm diameter, with ease. This allows us to routinely plate bacteria from 24 reaction wells onto a single square petri dish, thus reducing the number of plates to a manageable amount and ensuring colony counting is no longer the rate limiting step in our OPKA work,” continued Professor Nahm.

Simon Johns, International Product Manager for Synbiosis added: “We are delighted the ProtoCOL is being used to help evaluate new pneumococcal vaccines, for which there is currently a huge demand. The research being performed at UAB shows the ProtoCOL can rapidly count even low contrast colonies, making it important technology which could become a crucial part of many bactericidal assays.”

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Synbiosis is a world-leading supplier of automatic colony counting and zone measurement systems. Synbiosis’s ProtoCOL and åCOLyte systems are used in food, pharmaceutical, environmental and research laboratories worldwide. Synbiosis uses established distribution channels to market its products internationally.

Synbiosis, founded in 1998 is a division of the Synoptics Group based in Cambridge UK. The Group’s other divisions; Syncroscopy and Syngene, specialise in digital imaging solutions for microscopy and molecular biology applications respectively. Synoptics currently employs 55 people in its UK and US subsidiary operation and has profitable revenue of almost $10 million, which continues to grow rapidly.

The Department of Pathology in the University of Alabama at Birmingham provides extensive clinical services and teaching while maintaining large and productive research programmes. Currently, the Department has more than $14 million per year in extramural research funding and its clinical services, including inpatient, outpatient and outreach, completes over 4.2 million procedures per year. The training programmes at the UAB are among the finest in the world and the faculty has achieved national and international recognition in service, teaching and research.