xCELLigence RTCA SP by Agilent Technologies

"The RTCA SP is great and very useful for our research on immunotherapy. Our experiments are very reproducible with very minimal (negligible) variations in the results. Once the training of using the machine is done, its use if very easy and it helps research have great insight into the real-time happenings of their experiments rather than the conventional end point assays. It also helps save time, resources and its a good value for money. Finally, the after sales service is awesome, the staff are professional and timely in their response to complaints or queries."

"The ACEA’s platform technology was used with E-plates to monitor the proliferation of human placental cell line JEG3, HIPEC and BeWo treated with increasing concentrations of SSRIs. This technique is a unique and pioneering approach to test the safety of drugs prescribed during pregnancy on placentation. The xCELLigence system has provided crucial data on the potential cytotoxicity and proliferative effects of antidepressants in real time. This technology is ideal for IC50 and AUC calculation. RTCA-SP and its 96-well E-plates permitted to test a large number of samples in the same experiment, which is time-saving and economical."

"In principle, the product is really good. We were satisfied for a couple of years. However, in the course of the last two years we experienced serious problems with the measurements in more and more wells and spent two times almost 10,000.- € to get the problems solved. It did not work out as hoped. By the end of last year, our system was serviced back at ACEA in the US. This took almost 6 months. When we got it back, the problems were still the same."

"We achieve high-quality results but our results are sometimes not reproducible. We try to seed the cells in the same passage but the profiles of the curves or the max cell indexes with the same cell do not fit with each other. When the curves ar enot similar each time the effects of our compounds that we are testing also alters and this is one of the most common problems we have with the system. To test our results we try to confirm our results with regular cytotoxicity tests but usually it fails. Because our results sometimes does not fit the common cytotoxicity tests although we perform these tests in 1st, 2nd 3rd,6th,12th and 24th hour trials to mimic "real time" effects. When the results are not reproducible we need to compare our xcelligence results with regular cytotoxicity tests each time which makes us sometimes unable to go further molecular experiments before identifying these different responses with different methods. The plates are expensive therefore sometimes we have to limit our experimental plans that we do not have enough financial support to consume many e-plates. And this limits us to have reproducible results. The system is simple but the software might be improved a little bit more to achieve a customer friendly way of use. We sometimes get difficulty to discuss our results since the effects of each compound we try, have different effects on the profile of the curves but these styles are not identified clearly with the molecular mechanisms. And we sometimes get difficulty in publising our results with xcelligence system becuase the reviewers usually see this system for the first time and ask many questions and sometimes need us only to reflect the cell index results of one end point such as 24th hour after application. So usually we need assistance in discussing our results while writing papers and we need to be supported during our publication process. The impedence sometimes alters because of the morphology of the cells not the number of the cells we use e-view plates to see whether these changes are due to morphology or the number of the cells but the system can be improved making us able to visualise what happens to cells in a real time manner without taking the plate of the system. To achive this an adoptation of a camera system should be very useful and helpful. We are pleased from the customer meetings every year being held by the distrubuter firm in Turkiye and we are pleased from the contributions of Yama Abassi. But he is for sure so busy sometimes to deal with all the customers all over the world therefore the firm should increase the number of the scientific people to discuss our results before publication since only one person cannot reach everybody each time. The webinars are helpfull to cope with this problem but might be more frequent gathering all the responses to the questions that the customers have. The firm should supply a technical support for validation of the system at least once a year. The technical assisstance was satisfactory in the first years but gets poorer in Turkiye. As an overall comment thanks to ACEA for Xcelligence system but we need more scientific and technical asistance."

"Excellent instrument for non-invasive label-free real-time monitoring of cell growth kinetics. We use the cell index, a compound parameter (including cell morphology, size and proliferation/death rates) as QC for all of our cell lines. Any changes in culture conditions, passage number etc are picked up by deviations from the standard. The new 96-dishes allow visualization of cells, which is very useful. Pharmacological screens are easy and high-throughput. Sufficient numbers of technical replicates are easily achieved given the plate design. Instrument is very easy to use and data analysis is straightforward. My only concern is that the cable that connects the device through the incubator door can quite easily break."

"Xcelligence give the vision on the experiments. For some time at the begining it was only descriptive but it also allows to investigate the signaling pathways of the regulation studied. I use Xcelligence on a daily basis. I performed a lot of experiments (/ex testing different cuture medium) that I would have never done without it, because Xcelligence is fascinating giving real-time results without labelling."

"It's a great machine, easy to use, highly efficient, stable and data consistent, but E-plate is too expensive to afford."

"xCelligence Technology is highly interesting. The flexibility of use is not that brilliant. Furthermore the throughput is low, as there is a strong effect with outside wells, shrinking a 96-well to 60-wel.l"

"It has allowed us to observe in real time how are the dynamics of biofilm formation in real time in an easy and comfortable way, without almost manipulating the sample. We conclude that it is an accurate and reproducible method, after assessing specifically the experiments reproducibility. In summary, this device opens a wide range of possibilities for the study of the wonderful world of biofilms, as well as a valuable tool for the effective treatment selection of diseases caused by bacterial biofilms."