Perceptive Instruments News
(2nd May '13)Visit us at the 13th International Congress of Toxicology
Perceptive Instruments will be exhibiting at the 13th International Congress of Toxicology meeting in Seoul from the 30th of June to the 4th of July.
Symposia at this year’s annual meeting include genotoxicity thresholds, nanotechnology and international coordination of research.
There will also be a CE course on Global Progress in Genotoxicity and Carcinogenicity Test Methods.
If you are attending the meeting, come along to our booth where we will be showcasing Comet Assay IV, our image analysis system for the comet assay, as well Cyto Study Manager, Ames Study Manager and Sorcerer Colony Counter.
(22nd Apr '13)Perceptive sponsor 10th International Comet Assay Workshop
The 10th International Comet Assay Workshop (ICAW), the latest in a successful series of conferences dedicated to the comet assay, is to be held in Porto between the 18th and 20th of September this year. The workshop will give attendees the opportunity to meet the leading authorities in the field and to discuss recent developments of the assay.
As proud sponsors of the workshop, Perceptive Instruments will also be exhibiting, giving attendees the chance to see the latest version of Comet Assay IV in action. We'll also be demonstrating Cyto Study Manager.
For more information about the 10th International Comet Assay Workshop, including how to attend, please visit the workshop website at http://cometassay2013.webnode.pt/.
(7th Feb '13)Sorcerer Colony Counter in the development of meningitis vaccines
The UK Health Protection Agency Meningococcal Reference Unit, and many other vaccine development units around the world, choose to use Sorcerer Colony Counter for conducting the Serum Bacteriocidal Assay (SBA).
Serum bactericidal antibody activity is known to correlate with immunity to meningococcal disease. SBA is a globally accepted method for measuring the functional activity of serum antibodies against meningococcus. The assay is used to determine whether a subject, or a population, is seropositive against invasive meningococcus.
The end point of the SBA assay is the counting of colony forming units. The bacteria are placed in serial dilutions on blood-based agar plates. The plates are then tilted at 45 degrees and the solution runs down the plate forming 'lanes'. The plates are incubated and after the colonies have grown they can be counted instantly and accurately using theSorcerer automatic colony counter.
SBA is just one example of how Sorcerer is used for many different scientific and industrial applications including public health, drug development and production, food and milk testing and environmental monitoring. If you are looking for a fast, reliable colony counter to help with your testing, thenget in touch to arrange a demonstration.
(30th Jan '13)Comet Assay IV - Exposure to formaldehyde
Researchers based at the National Institute of Health in Porto, Portugal and their collaborators have been investigating occupational exposure to formaldehyde. In order to assess the genotoxic effects of chronic occupational exposure to formaldehyde, a group of pathology/anatomy workers were assessed using the micronucleus test and comet assay. The team used Comet Assay IV to score their comet assay slides.
To find out more, read about the story on our dedicated comet assay website.
(21st Nov '12)Free demo of Cyto Study Manager available now
The Cyto Study Manager is a software system that integrates all your data acquisition, reporting and management needs into one neat little package.
During your genetic toxicology investigation, the Cyto Study Manager integrates the following processes for individual and combined comet and micronucleus assays:
- Experiment design
- Sample coding and decoding
- Data acquisition
- Reporting and statistics
- Auditing and user control
- Archiving and historical data
With your own free trial, you can log in to a secure exclusive demo site and see the benefits of Cyto Study Manager for yourself.
For more information contact us or visit www.cytostudy.com
(23rd Oct '12)New MLA data processing spreadsheet
Working with Mouse Lymphoma Assay (MLA) experts at various contract research organisations, we have developed a new Excel spreadsheet specifically for soft agar MLA investigations.
Speed and accuracy
The spreadsheet seamlessly integrates with our Sorcerer colony counter and allows accurate colony counting with instant size distribution information.
Automatic mutant frequency calculation
The spreadsheet can be used to record daily culture maintenance data and by counting both mutant plates and viability plates, the spreadsheet will automatically calculate the mutant frequency, mutant index and relative plating efficiency.
Bespoke configuration
Before you begin counting colonies, the spreadsheet can be configured for your experimental set-up. The number of positive/negative controls and test cultures are easily chosen and the spreadsheet is instantly created with the correct number of rows and columns.
Part of the package...
This new soft agar MLA data processing spreadsheet is included with every Sorcerer purchase.
Existing customers with maintenance contracts or a valid warranty on their Sorcerer system should contact us for a free copy.
(10th Sep '12)42nd EEMS in Poland
Next week, we’ll be at the 42nd EEMS in Poland.
The scientific program will include mechanisms of DNA damage tolerance, versatile functions of DNA repair proteins, chromatin structure in the control of genetic stability, human diseases and DNA repair, markers of human exposure to genotoxic agents, environmental aspects of toxicity of nanoparticles, epigenotoxicology including miRNA as cellular response to DNA damage, oxidation and deamination of nucleobases as a new epigenetic instrument in the control of mutations and carcinogenesis.
Please drop by our booth to see the latest GeneTox systems from Perceptive Instruments. Please email sales@perceptive.co.uk if you would like to schedule in a time to meet us at our exhibition stand for a free demonstration of one (or several) of our products.
We will be happy to discuss the benefits our systems can give to your laboratory!
Find out more: http://www.eemseu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=8&Itemid=29
(5th Sep '12)See you at EMS!
Visit us at the 43rd Environmental Mutagen Society annual meeting!
The theme of the EMS Meeting is “EMS: The Next Generation”
The Society’s Annual Meeting is unique in bringing together scientists who carry out basic research with those involved in risk estimation and regulatory concerns related to the consequences of exposure to environmental, industrial, and pharmaceutical agents.
Perceptive Instruments Ltd will have a stand in the exhibition hall and will be demonstrating all our latest GeneTox systems.
Please email sales@perceptive.co.uk if you would like to schedule in a time to meet us at our exhibition stand for a free demonstration of one (or several) of our products.
See you there!
Find out more: http://www.ems-us.org/AM2012/index.asp
(2nd Aug '12)UKEMS 2012 - "Next Generation Genotoxicology"
The 2012 Annual UKEMS Meeting in Swansea was an excellent display of the most recent findings and developments in genetic toxicology. Representatives from across the world delivered first class presentations and led intriguing discussions. Researchers, academics and people from industry joined to discuss ‘Next Generation Genotoxicology.'
The conference kicked-off with a pre-conference event; an educational session entitled ‘Essentials of Genetic Toxicology’. Here, delegates were treated to interesting presentations about the history and development of genetic toxicology.
Over the next three days, we saw fascinating presentations on many different areas of genetic toxicology. Firstly, delegates attended exciting presentations on ‘in silico predictive toxicology,’ which was followed later in the day by a session on ‘new technologies’ where new techniques, such as the pigA assay, were discussed. The conference included interesting sessions on ‘genotoxic tolerance & thresholds,’ ‘genotoxic impurities,’ and ‘nanogenotoxicology.’
The first plenary lecture was delivered by Michael Fenech, who works at the CSIRO Food & Nutritional Sciences in Adelaide, South Australia. His current research focus is investigating which nutrients are required for genome health maintenance and how genetic background influences nutritional requirement for preventing deterioration of the genome. The second plenary lecture was presented by Ed Calabrese, Professor & EHS Concentration Director, Department of Public Health, University of Massachusetts. He is one of the leading experts on hormesis, the term given to a dose-response phenomenon, and shared some of his opinions on the subject. Both presentations were captivating and raised excellent questions and discussions between the delegates for the remainder of the conference.
The UKEMS Young Scientist Award winner was George Johnson, who presented an excellent talk on mutagenicity and clastogenicity. Other early career scientists were given the chance to present their work in the ‘young scientist’ session and nearly 50 posters were presented at an evening poster session at the Oxwich Bay Hotel, which featured a hog roast for the delegates!
Although it rained most of the time the UKEMS delegates were in Swansea, the scientific opinions and spirits were not dampened and the quality of all the presentations was excellent. The delegates enjoyed a conference dinner at the Waterfront Museum and danced the night away.
Perceptive Instruments Ltd would like to thank the local organisers, Gareth Jenkins, Shareen Doak and George Johnson, and the rest of the UKEMS committee, and we look forward to attending the 36th UKEMS annual meeting next year in Bristol!
(14th May '12)The ComNet Project.
The international multi-disciplinary journal, Mutagenesis, has published a commentary detailing the launch of The ComNet (comet network) Project. The publication follows discussions on the comet assay in human population studies during the International Comet Assay Workshop meeting in Kusadasi, Turkey (September 13–16, 2011).
The ultimate aim of the network, ComNet, is to establish the comet assay as a reliable trusted biomarker assay. This project has the potential to bring together comet assay data from across the globe and improve the quality of comet assay data within research investigations.
The main priorities of the ComNet project are:
- to establish the comet assay as a reliable biomonitoring tool for human studies and
- to define the relevance of DNA damage (as measured with the comet assay) for human health and disease.
You can read the full report here.
And find more at www.comnetproject.org.
