BactoBox® Bacterial Cell Counter

BactoBox®, developed by SBT Instruments, is a compact and user-friendly benchtop instrument that delivers direct bacterial cell counts and growth kinetics in about two minutes. Traditional methods either infer growth, as optical density (OD600) does, or need overnight cultivation, as colony forming units (CFU) do. BactoBox counts the cells directly, with no cultivation and no labelling.

Technical Specifications

• Measurement Principle: Label-free impedance flow cytometry that detects individual cells and their volume
• Linear Range: 3 × 10⁴ to 5 × 10⁶ cells/mL, reached by diluting the sample into range
• Key Output Data: Total cell concentration (cells/mL) and average cell size (CIZE)
• Sample Speed: Less than 1 minute of preparation and a 2-minute measurement
• Consumables: A flow cell valid for 250 measurements, plus sampling vials

Primary Applications

• Microbial Process Development: Optimises fermentation and media screening workflows
• Harvest and Transfer Timing: Pinpoints the transition between exponential growth and the plateau phase
• Anaerobic Strain Counting: Compact enough to fit inside an anaerobic chamber

Key Benefits

• Counts your cells and measures their size from the same reading, in about two minutes
• Reports actual cells/mL over time, not absorbance units or turbidity estimates
• Shows your true growth kinetics as they happen