Stemmer Imaging has worked in close collaboration with the world-renowned Millipore Corporation in the development of an imaging and counting module for Millipore’s Milliflex Quantum system for fast microbial detection. Based on a uEye board level camera, the module allows fluorescing micro-colonies as small as 120 microns in diameter to be counted.

The Milliflex Quantum system is a rapid, fluorescent-based technology designed for fast quantitative detection of micro-organisms. The system enables drug and vaccine manufacturers to respond to micro-organism contamination earlier in the production process. This easy-to-use and simple system uses industry standard membrane filtration techniques to detect viable and culturable micro-organisms using fluorescent staining principles. Detected colonies can be counted visually on the instrument’s display screen, or by using the camera system to display the colonies on the PC with software counting capabilities.

Originally developed as an optional accessory, but now supplied as standard due to customer demand, the camera module features an IDS uEye board level camera with a monochrome CMOS sensor having a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels and a 12mm lens. This produces high resolution, high contrast images for easy counting. GPVision, one of STEMMER IMAGING’s integration partners in France, has developed supporting software for set-up and to assist the user in counting the micro-colonies.

The inputs and outputs of the camera have been used to integrate a light strip controlled by the PC software via the camera. This strip visually informs the user about the current camera status such as whether the acquisition is running or whether there is an error. An additional benefit is that this non-destructive approach also allows the identification of any microorganisms detected during the initial fluorescent count, using the user’s preferred ID methodology.

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