HoloMonitor® M4 Live Cell Analysis System

We usually use it without any problems and make great use of it in our research. There are few devices in the world that can acquire three-dimensional information of cells while they are alive. This device helps us to make new discoveries by capturing the characteristics of cells that have not been focused on before. To be honest, automatic tracking of migrating cells is not 100% accurate. We have reduced the density of cells, still some tracking mistakes occur. But don't worry, because the accompanying software, SINGLE CELL TRACKING, has enough tools for manual correction, and once corrected, useful data can be obtained. In this regard, we look forward to technological advances.

Review Date: 20 Sept 2024 | Phase Holographic Imaging (PHI)

The system is very easy to use. You set up an experiment, place the cell culture vessel under the microscope, and select the experiment of interest (dose-response). The system auto-calibrates itself and collects data in real time. Sometimes external factors such as condensation on cell culture flask interfere with single-cell detection. This is visible in the images, moreover, the system flags low-quality images, which you can exclude from the data analysis. At the end of the experiments, the system generates all the figures for you (graphs, images, videos). You can then use the collected data and have them re-analyzed by the software using a different application e.g. proliferation, motility, etc. All in one, performing one experiment allows you to collect data using multiple applications. The PHI lab team are friendly, approachable and caring. The team always tried their best to help us solve issues, guide us through applications we were not familiar with or provide training where needed. At times, I needed help with the calibration of the laser, solving the accumulation of condensation on my cell culture flask. Equally, the system generates so much data that sometimes I needed help with analysis. The PHI lab team were always happy to help, responding quickly to all queries, and having video calls to navigate us through the process. The system generated reproducible cell proliferation data. I have run two proliferation assays in parallel. One is kinetic proliferation using HoloMonitor (real-time analysis) the other is tritiated thymidine incorporation proliferation assays (end-point analysis). The assays generated reproducible data. What I liked about the system is that you select how many positions within your cell culture flask the laser monitors and how often the laser monitors those positions. This is very useful if you are expecting the effect of the treatment to manifest within a short period or to study apoptosis. There is an additional “in-depth analysis” function which gives endless ways of analyzing your data. In addition to the applications that detect single-cell automatically and generate data automatically (wound-healing assay, proliferation, motility, dose-response, cell quality, etc.) with ready-to-export graphs, there is an “in-depth analysis” function. This enables you to look at cell tree plots, 48 morphological features collected for every single cell at the selected position, like roughness, and eccentricity, which you can then use to investigate the effects of the treatment on your cell morphology. The “in-depth analysis” provides infinite options to analyze your cells. This application, however, is less intuitive to use. The single-cells are detected automatically by software, but I recommend double-checking the single-cell selection manually (note: automatically selected borders can be manually adjusted here). I found this function extremely helpful when studying cytotoxic vs cytostatic cellular responses to treatments. After publishing my results, PHI lab contacted me to hear about my user experience. They were particularly interested to see where the system could do better and were very responsive to feedback. The only drawback of the system: -An in-depth analysis of 48 morphological features does not provide mean values. Let’s say you want to see the mean cell volume from three wells in your 6 well-plate. To do this, you would need to export the Excel data and analyse them yourself. -Statistical analysis is not incorporated within the software, so you have to manually export the data in Excel format and re-analyse them. All in all, I would highly recommend this product if you want to get a comprehensive understanding of your cell morphology and how it changes to stimuli (of your interest). I think it is good value for money because you only need to set up one experiment, which can be re-analysed in many ways.

Review Date: 5 Mar 2024 | Phase Holographic Imaging (PHI)

Easy to use system placed directly in the cell culture incubator; support various cell culture vessels including small flasks, 6-well plates, 24-well plates and other; definetly time and resource saving, once the experiment is started you get your ready results; possibility to upgrade and extend your analysis software

Review Date: 6 Jun 2023 | Phase Holographic Imaging (PHI)