Now that cell therapy and immunotherapy approaches are making their way from the bench into patients, more and more cells are cultured under good manufacturing conditions (GMP) in dedicated GMP suites. Each time a scientist enters the suite, a complex gowning routine has to be followed including hair net, shoe covers, gloves, mask, coverall, boot covers, googles, and sterile gloves. Under these circumstances, live cell monitoring is costly and quite time consuming; there is no option for researchers to go take a quick glance at their cells.
As a cloud-based system, the CytoSMARTTM System for live cell imaging and monitoring enables you to view your cell culture from any browser-capable system, such as a computer, laptop, smartphone or personal tablet device. Moreover, you can set automatic alerts for cell confluence - meaning you only need to physically tend to your cells once they have reached a certain confluency.
Although the CytoSMARTTM System is not compliant to GMP regulations (e.g. no 21 CFR Part 11 compliance), using it can reduce the number of times cell cultures need to be manually observed.
The same advantage applies to biosafety level (BSL) 3 & 4 laboratories, labs that allow diagnostic work and research on pathogens which can cause severe or fatal diseases. Working in these BSL 3 or 4 labs is extremely cumbersome and costly. In addition to the gowning, researchers also need to disinfect themselves when exiting the lab. Thus, using the remote monitoring feature of the CytpoSMARTTM System not only reduces costs (costs of gowning equipment) but also increases the safety of the employees.