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Beacon's innovative solutions
Beacon™ multipurpose cell research and development platform
The Beacon platform is a product of Berkeley Lights, Inc. (U.S.A.), with which Nikon has entered into a strategic business cooperation contract for cell-related fields.
It consists of a cell sorting/operating platform that has four bays (Sample Bay, Reagent Bay, Waste Bay, Electronics Bay). Placing an exclusive chip (OptoSelect Chip) which is applied to the semiconductor production process, processes with high accuracy, and has up to 3,500 rooms into Beacon for activating the workflow, you can sort cells for individual rooms while observing and recording each cell as a microscope image. After taking an image of a single cell, you can observe the culturing and assay processes in real time. Also, movie and still images can be recorded if necessary.
This solves such user issues as "I want to develop a cell line while proving clonality" or "I would like to apply assay on a single cell".
Because cell operation requires OEP (Opto Electro Positioning) technology to provide pattern irradiation of LEDs that are placed surrounded with cells, cells are not damaged.
Beacon is used for many development sites where cell sorting and operation are needed, such as in the pharmaceutical industry.
- *Beacon™ is a registered trademark or trademark of Berkeley Lights Inc. of the United States in the United States of America and other regions and territories.
- *Nikon has entered into an exclusive sales agency contract with BLI for sales in Japan of the Beacon™ platform in January, 2018.
(Bottom) Whole image of micro channels in an OptoSelect Chip
(Right) Cell culturing in a NanoPen
Principles of cell sorting
Each NanoPen has a volume equivalent to 1/100,000th of the volume of a conventional microwell. One OptoSelect Chip holds around 3,500 NanoPens. OptoElectro Positioning (OEP) is the technology employed for sending cells into the NanoPens. A force pushing the cell is generated where the LED light touches, and can be used to manipulate (separate and store) any individual live cell.
OptoSelect Chip simplifies the process
One Beacon can hold four OptoSelect Chips. A clearly legible GUI supports diverse manipulations.
Features of Beacon
The following are the major features of the Beacon™ multipurpose cell research and development platform.
Feature 1
Observation and culture of a single cell is available (CLD Workflow)
Feature 2
Assay corresponding to a single cell
Using Beacon, various assay can be processed simple and speedy.
Feature 3
Evaluate dispersion of single clone
Feature 4
Strong correlation of before and after scale-up
- *ambr®15: High-throughput, automated bioreactor system for 24 or 48 parallel cultivations.
Feature 5
The process is greatly shortened
By using Beacon, the time required for each workflow can be radically shortened.
Cell line development
Using the Beacon cell line development workflow, it is possible to extract any desired monoclonal cell from a transgenic cell group in around five days.
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