Bioscreen was developed by Labsystems Oy (Helsinki, Finland) in the mid ‘80s. It began as a mutagenity/carcinogenity testing system. It soon became clear that this instrument would be a very useful tool to automate routine microbiology. It was optimized for microbiology growth experiments.
Key components included:

• Absorption photometer to measure turbidometry
• Accurate incubator to control bacterial growth
• Sample dispensing and diluting module
• Unique cuvette to provide even temperature distribution
• Specially designed software

Labsystems began promoting Bioscreen, and new applications were discovered at a rapid rate. In the next 10 years, there were over 300 Bioscreen placements made worldwide.

Meanwhile, Labsystems Oy had been acquired by Thermo Electron and priorities changed. Marketing and support efforts were cut back, and Bioscreen no longer fit the company’s needs. A former Labsystems executive offered to acquire the product line in early 2003.

This offer was accepted, and production was transferred to his new company, Oy Growth Curves AB. Later that year, U.S. marketing, sales and distribution was transferred from ThermoLabsystems to Growth Curves USA.

A wide range of applications have been reported for Bioscreen in the food, pharmaceuticals, environmental, and research areas.
These include:

• Pharmaceutical product development
• Measuring drug resistance of microorganisms
• Measuring effects of antibiotics
• Development of foods and food preservatives
• Study of microorganism growth in foods
• Quality control of food production
• Study of the effects of environmental toxicants on bacteria
• Modeling of microbiological processes

For a complete list of references, please contact us.

It is a well known principle that as microorganisms grow, they increase the turbidity of their growth medium. By measuring the turbidity of this medium over time, an optical density (OD) curve can be generated. The curve reflects the growth (increased concentration) if the organism of interest.

Bioscreen system provides a platform for these measurements to be made. The organism of interest and any growth medium may be selected. They are manually dispensed using a multichannel pipette into wells of a special microplate.

Honeycomb Microplate
This 10 by 10 well plate is designed to provide a uniform temperature across each of the 100 wells in the plate. A fitted plate lid with special characteristics eliminates troublesome condensation which can interfere with OD readings.

Bioscreen Analyzer
The instrument includes an incubator to provide constant temperature and a linear shaker to assure good mixing. The instrument is equipped with a sensitive reader that measures turbidity, a technique more sensitive than a spectrophotometer. The reader is equipped with 8 filters to measure specific wavelengths. Two 100 well sterile honeycomb plates with covers are handled by the instrument at one time, making it possible to run 200 samples simultaneously. Turbidometric measurements are made kinetically during the course of the run. This information is processed to generate microbiological growth curves, plotting turbidity vs. time. Data is then exported to a PC for report generation.

Software
EZ Bioscreen Experiment software drives the workstation, records results, and displays growth curves. All experimental data (OD, test parameters, sample names, growth curves, and results) can be exported to Microsoft Windows 2000 or above (Excel, Word, etc.) for preparation of reports.

Cuvette: 10 by 10 honeycomb sterile plate plus lid.

Capacity: 2 plates (200 wells) at one time.

Temperature: 1.0 to 60.0 degrees C in steps of 0.1 degree.

Filters: 8 filters from 405 to 600 nm, including wide band.

Operating System: Windows 2000 or higher.

5101370 Bioscreen Analyzer 220.110 V

4222720 5 channel digital pipette, 50 to 200 µl

4222730 5 channel digital pipette, 200 to 1000 µl

4262710 10 channel digital pipette, 5 to 50 µl

9502550 Honeycomb 2 multiwell sterile plate with cover (100 pieces)