Advanced Instruments to Feature the Anoxomat Mark II Anaerobic System at the ASM 107th General Meeting

Advanced Instruments’ subsidiary, Spiral Biotech, will show the Anoxomat™ Mark II anaerobic system for the cultivation of anaerobic, micro-aerophilic, and capnophilic bacteria in laboratories at The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) 107th General Meeting, May 21-25, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada.

The Anoxomat Mark II’s automatic jar evacuation/replacement technology is an excellent alternative to the use of anaerobic chambers and gas bags currently used in clinical laboratories.

“The Anoxomat Mark II creates microaerophilic and anaerobic conditions quickly – delivering significant advantages for clinical laboratory managers. Moreover, managers report that the Anoxomat delivers significant savings in terms of consumables, time, effort, and money versus anaerobic jars, anaerobic glove cabinets, or CO₂ incubators,” said Anthony Pappas, National Sales Manager, Advanced Instruments.

According to Pappas, one user reported saving “a considerable amount in gases – perhaps a quarter” of what the laboratory used previously.

The Anoxomat is also fast and easy to use, makes the work process more flexible, and its built-in quality assurance guarantees reliable results, Pappas added.

A Los Angeles, California based user said, “Because of the way the Anoxomat jar works, I can open it up, take out a sample, and make it anaerobic again very fast.”

Benefits of the Anoxomat Mark II system include:

• Rapid achievement of anaerobic conditions, reaching anaerobiosis as quickly as one to three minutes as opposed to one to four hours for gas bags or chambers,
• Repeatable environmental conditions, with gas mixtures remaining consistent within 0.5 percent of desired values,
• Substantial cost-of-ownership savings versus the expense of consumables, pre-reduce media, and ongoing costs involved with chambers and gas bags,
• “Walk-away convenience” and ease of use due to the Mark II’s new, intuitive software and touch-screen interface,
• Automatic quality assurance programming features that ensure an airtight status, warn of pressure leaks, and bind any residual oxygen after evacuation cycling, and
• Unmatched flexibility allowing users to take plates in and out of jars and return to anaerobic environments in minutes rather than hours.

Anoxomat’s Excellence in Technology

The Anoxomat system is highly efficient and cost effective at cultivating pathogens and attaining growth performance that easily equals or exceeds that of chambers or gas bags.

Each Anoxomat cycle involves an evacuation phase, followed by replacement using an oxygen-free gas mixture. One cycle achieves 70% to 80% removal of the original atmosphere and gives a microaerophilic environment in one minute. Three cycles achieve an anaerobic atmosphere in less than 3 minutes.

A built-in quality assurance system checks for leaks before incubation. The system also checks whether the catalyst is capable of achieving the desired conditions and warns you if there's a threat of gas failure.

The resulting gas mixture stays well within 0.5% of the desired value. This high precision, combined with the well-known reproducibility of these conditions, gives microbiologists a strong tool to draw accurate conclusions from repeated findings, Pappas said.

The Anoxomat Mark II Anaerobic System is immediately available from Spiral Biotech. For more information, visit Advanced Instruments, Inc. at the ASM 107th General Conference in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, May 21-25, in booth #923.