Opera Phenix™ Plus
The Opera Phenix™ Plus from Revvity is an advanced and highly versatile High‑Content Screening (HCS) system, applicable across multiple research areas such as 3D organoids and spheroids, angiogenesis, apoptosis, autophagy, cell‑cycle dynamics, migration and invasion assays. It also supports studies on cell signalling, viability, co‑culture assays, membrane analysis, mitochondrial localization, and stem‑cell differentiation. Its adaptability extends to thick tissue sections, zebrafish assays, and FRET experiments, making it an indispensable tool for modern scientific exploration and discovery.
Equipment Features
The Opera Phenix™ Plus is a fully integrated solution designed for speed, sensitivity, and automation in high‑throughput, high‑content, and phenotypic screening—particularly in drug testing, complex disease models, and 3D imaging of organoids, spheroids, and microtissues in both fixed and live samples. With a fast frame rate for spinning‑disk confocal imaging, it enables multidimensional imaging (3D, multichannel, time‑lapse) of multi‑well plates, ensuring comprehensive data collection.
Equipped with a robotic loading system, it streamlines experimentation by automating the sequential loading of multiple multi‑well plates from external racks or an integrated incubator, offering precise control of temperature, CO₂, and humidity throughout experiments. This valuable automation enables the scheduling and simultaneous execution of multiple long‑term experiments, significantly enhancing research efficiency.
The microscope features hardware‑based laser autofocus, ensuring sharp confocal images across all wells and plates without supervision. Its real‑time image‑analysis capability allows on‑the‑fly detection and identification of events or cells of interest, enabling subsequent targeted imaging.
Technology Applications
The Opera Phenix™ Plus is used across a wide range of biological and medical research fields to perform detailed, high‑speed analyses of biological samples, advancing scientific knowledge and supporting the development of new therapies and medical treatments. Examples include:
- Drug Discovery: Used in the pharmaceutical industry to identify and evaluate chemical compounds with therapeutic potential—for instance, screening compounds that affect cell viability in cultured cells.
- Toxicology Studies: Enables assessment of the impact of chemicals—such as drugs, industrial compounds, or environmental contaminants—on cells, which is essential for evaluating product safety prior to commercialization.
- Cancer Research: Supports studies on cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion in cancer cells, helping to elucidate underlying mechanisms and develop new therapies.
- Cell Biology Research: Used to investigate a wide range of biological processes, including cell differentiation, autophagy, cellular senescence, and organelle dynamics—for example, analysing how specific compounds affect mitochondrial formation and behaviour.
- Neuroscience Studies: Useful for examining neuronal morphology, synapse formation, neurodegeneration, and other nervous‑system‑related processes—for instance, identifying compounds that promote neuronal survival in neurodegenerative disease models.
- Infectious Disease Research: Enables the study of host–pathogen interactions and immune responses to infection, which is crucial for understanding infectious disease mechanisms and developing new antiviral and antibiotic treatments.
Funding
This equipment was fully funded through European funds under the 2021 call for the acquisition of scientific‑technical equipment from the Next Generation EU programme, within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan / project EQC2021‑007516‑P, with a total amount of €654,036.
Location
The Opera Phenix™ Plus system is located in the Advanced Optical Microscopy Laboratory at the Clínic Campus (University of Barcelona – CCiTUB).