The new confluency tool released today provides a solution to variability in subjective measurements of cell confluency. The free resource offers scientists a fast and reproducible solution for use in their cell culture operations.
The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult) today announced the launch of a new online tool to automate the measurement of cell confluency, an important control parameter for cells growing in culture. The new tool, available on the CGT Catapult website, offers a consistent and easy-to-use resource for reducing time and variability in cell culture operations.
Cell confluency refers to the percentage of an area, such as a culture dish, that is covered by adherent cells, and it is a key parameter for determining the optimal timings for cell harvest, passage and process interventions. Accurate and reproducible measurements of cell confluency are essential, particularly for the research, development and manufacturing of materials for cell and gene therapies, but visual estimates of confluency inevitably lead to inter- and intra-operator variability. Inter-operator variabilities up to 35% are observed, which could potentially affect key decisions that are taken in cell manufacture.
This new tool developed by CGT Catapult offers a convenient way of measuring cell confluency. From an uploaded cell culture image, the programme automatically segments areas covered by cells from the background to determine cell confluency. The resource also defines cell boundaries providing a processed image available for download. A ‘high confluency’ method specifically developed for images with high cell coverage is also available.
The launch of this resource, which is available free on the CGT Catapult website, provides scientists with a solution to increase the reproducibility of cell culture outputs and thus their cell manufacturing processes.
To find out more or register to use the cell confluency tool, visit:
ct.catapult.org.uk/cellconfluency