The human microbiome is key to understanding health and disease, but isolating and cultivating anaerobic bacteria – crucial for gut health – remains a significant challenge. Traditional methods, like streak-plating, are low-throughput and often fail to recover the full diversity of anaerobic species. B.SIGHT from Cytena changes the game with its high-throughput single-cell isolation technology, optimized for microbial research.
How B.SIGHT works
B.SIGHT is a microbial isolation platform that leverages cutting-edge optical microscopy and CYTENA’s single-cell dispensing technology to enable precise isolation of even the smallest microbial cells. The process involves:
- Sample Preparation: The bacterial suspension is loaded into the system.
- Real-Time Imaging & Selection: Using advanced optics, B.SIGHT captures images of individual cells, identifying those to isolate.
- Gentle Dispensing: Cells are carefully dispensed with a non-contact mechanism, ensuring high viability and culture success.
This process is compatible with anaerobic conditions, allowing researchers to isolate even the most challenging gut microbes.
Why B.SIGHT is a Breakthrough
| Feature | Traditional Methods | B.SIGHT |
| Throughput | Low – labor-intensive | High – fully automated |
| Survival Rate | Often low due to stress | High – gentle, non-contact dispensing |
| Selection Precision | Random isolation | Imaging-based, targeted single-cell selection |
| Contamination Risk | High – manual handling | Low – fully enclosed workflow |
| Anaerobic Adaptability | Limited | Compatible with anaerobic conditions |
B.SIGHT also minimizes the need for traditional dilution-to-extinction methods, enabling high-efficiency isolation of pure bacterial cultures from complex communities.
Real-World Impact
B.SIGHT has already proven effective in microbiome studies, as demonstrated by Dr. Thomas Clavel’s research on gut bacteria. His team successfully isolated over 1,000 clonal cultures from mouse gut samples, revealing previously uncharacterized species.
🔗 Read more about Dr. Clavel’s research
Conclusion: The Future of Microbiome Cultivation
By combining high-throughput single-cell isolation, real-time imaging, and precise dispensing technology, B.SIGHT sets a new standard in microbiome research. Whether isolating anaerobic bacteria for gut studies, synthetic biology, or probiotic development, it offers an unparalleled advantage in advancing our understanding of the microbiome.
Additional applications
B.SIGHT’s capabilities extend beyond microbiome research to include:
- Synthetic biology
- Probiotic development
- Environmental microbiology
- Antibiotic resistance studies
- Pathogen detection and isolation
