News
09.04.2024
New Advanced Optical Microscopy Equipment: Opera Phenix™ Plus, High-Content Screening System
The Scientific and Technological Centers of the University of Barcelona are making available to their users a new equipment in the Advanced Optical Microscopy laboratory located on the Clínic campus. The Opera Phenix™ Plus de Revvity is an advanced High-Content Screening (HCS) system, designed for the automated and efficient analysis of biological samples.
The Opera Phenix™ Plus is very versatile, finding application in various research areas such as 3D organoids and spheroids, angiogenesis, apoptosis, autophagy, cell cycle dynamics, migration, and invasion assays. It also supports studies on cellular signaling, viability, co-culture assays, membrane analysis, mitochondrial localization, and stem cell differentiation. Its adaptability extends to thick tissue slices, zebrafish assays, and FRET assays, making it an indispensable tool for modern scientific exploration and discovery.
Features
The Opera Phenix™ Plus is a fully integrated solution designed for speed, sensitivity, and automation in high-throughput, high-content, and phenotypic screenings, particularly in drug testing, complex disease models, and 3D imaging of organoids, spheroids, and microtissues in both fixed and live samples. With a rapid confocal spinning disk imaging frame rate, it enables multidimensional imaging (3D, multichannel, time-lapse) of multiwell plates, ensuring comprehensive data collection.
Equipped with a robot loading system, it streamlines experimentation by automating the sequential loading of multiple multiwell plates from external racks or an integrated incubator, offering precise control over temperature, CO2, and humidity throughout experiments. This invaluable automation enables the scheduling and simultaneous execution of multiple long-term experiments, thus enhancing research efficiency.
Featuring hardware laser-based autofocus, the microscope ensures sharp confocal images across all wells and plates in a non-supervised manner. Its online image analysis capability empowers real-time detection and identification of events or cells of interest, enabling subsequent imaging.
Applications
The Opera Phenix™ Plus instrument is used in a wide variety of biological and medical research areas to perform detailed and high-speed analysis of biological samples, allowing advancements in scientific knowledge and the development of new therapies and medical treatments such as:
- Drug Discovery: The Opera Phenix™ Plus is used in the pharmaceutical industry to identify and evaluate chemical compounds that could have therapeutic potential. For example, assays can be performed to identify new compounds that affect cell viability in cell cultures.
- Toxicology Studies: It allows evaluating the impact of chemicals, such as drugs, industrial chemicals, or environmental contaminants, on cells. This is essential for evaluating the safety of products before their commercialization.
- Cancer Research: In cancer research, the Opera Phenix™ is used to study cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion of cancer cells. This can help better understand the underlying mechanisms of cancer and develop new therapies.
- Cell Biology Studies: It is used to study a wide range of biological processes, such as cell differentiation, autophagy, cell senescence, and organelle dynamics. For example, it can be studied how certain compounds affect the formation and behavior of mitochondria in cells.
- Neuroscience Studies: The Opera Phenix™ Plus is useful for studying neuronal morphology, synapse formation, neurodegeneration, and other processes related to the nervous system. For example, assays can be performed to identify compounds that promote neuronal survival in models of neurodegenerative diseases.
- Infectiology Studies: It allows studying the interaction between pathogens and host cells, as well as the immune response to infections. This is important for understanding the pathogenesis of infectious diseases and for the development of new antiviral and antibiotic treatments.
Funding
This equipment has been fully funded with European funds in the 2021 call for the acquisition of scientific and technical equipment of the Next Generation EU Fund, Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. / project EQC2021-007516-P, with an amount of €654,036.
Location
The Opera Phenix™ Plus equipment can be found in the Advanced Optical Microscopy Laboratory located on the Clínic campus (University of Barcelona - CCiTUB), and it will be available to users from the second half of 2024 with a test period starting now.