The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent to BioTek Instruments Inc, Winooski, Vt, for the company’s user-trained autofocus feature in the Gen5 Microplate Reader and Imager Software integrated with its advanced cell imaging systems. The autofocus method enables users to overcome imaging challenges arising from debris or dead cells, thick biology, overexposure, or fluorescent dye bleaching. It works by capturing a user-defined reference scan and applying it to automatically determine comparable focal locations in subsequent images.

Patented user-trained autofocus is available for fluorescence and brightfield image capture, montage, and z-stacking processes in BioTek’s Cytation cell imaging multimode readers and Lionheart automated cell imagers, including existing systems via a software upgrade. Along with user-trained autofocus, the Gen5 software also offers BioTek’s patented laser autofocus and other image-based autofocus methods to provide users with several unique options to address a wide variety of biological sample types and imaging workflows.

To learn more, visit BioTek.