Customer testimonial: National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS

CNRS

Scan 1200, the most convincing automatic colony counter.

Gaëlle P., engineer, Genome Instability and Carcinogenesis Unit, CNRS, Marseille

Laboratory combining expertise in structural biology, genomics and bioinformatics

The "Genome Instability and Carcinogenesis" Laboratory is one of the 7 units making up the Institute of Structural Biology and Microbiology (ISBM - IFR88), created by the CNRS in 1995 under the impetus of the national interdisciplinary IMABIO programme (Engineering of Biological Macromolecules).

The Institute has a staff of 390, including 220 permanent employees (researchers, teachers, technical support staff) working in 7 laboratories and around twenty teams. The ISBM is developing a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating its vocation for fundamental research in Microbiology with the latest developments in functional and structural genomics.

Gaëlle P. works in the "Genome Instability and Carcinogenesis" fundamental research unit, which studies the mechanisms involved in controlling the stability of genetic material in the fight against cancer.

Location: Marseille, FRANCE
Work with: Scan 1200

Interview with Gaëlle P., engineer, Genome Instability and Carcinogenesis Unit, CNRS, Marseille:

Our field is molecular microbiology. We study DNA lesions, try to characterise them and in particular to understand how they are repaired by the cells. To count colonies, we were using a bip pen, which didn’t work very well.

We chose to work with the Scan 1200 for automatic colony counting and are very happy with its use. We tried several automatic counters on the market and the Scan 1200 was the most reliable.

Several people use it in the laboratory, mainly to count large batches of up to 100 dishes a day. So it saves us a lot of time. We then use the results in Excel™, in particular to produce survival curves.

We’re happy to receive free software updates, including the colony colour detection function. The Scan 1200 is an instrument to be recommended.