Research Applications


HALO Research Kit

HALO® - The Colony-Forming Assay Alternative
  • How many times have you curtailed the size of an experiment because the sheer number of 35mm Petri dishes to process by manual counting would have required several people all day to accomplish?
  • How many times have you tried to compare or normalize your results from one day to the next or from one experiment to another and have just been frustrated because it was either not possible or took so long to perform?
  • How many times have you looked through the microscope to see colonies that were either unidentifiable (without removing them to examine the cell type) or were difficult to characterize, even with the help of a colony atlas?
  • How many times have you looked through the microscope to see colonies of different sizes knowing full well that the size of the colony is an indication of the primitiveness of the original cell, but were unable to quantify the result?
  • Are you fed up with endlessly peering down a microscope to count colonies?
Have you ever thought there must be a better way of performing this assay?

Well, there is and it's name is HALO®.

And everything you have previously done with the colony-forming assay you can now do more cost-effectively, easily, faster and more reliably with HALO®.

When you use a HALO® Platform, there is:

  • Virtually no limitation to the size of your experiment.
  • All experiments can be directly compared with each other from day to day, month to month, year to year, because HALO® is a fully standardized assay.
  • It is not necessary to count colonies because HALO®, unlike the traditional colony-forming assay, is not a differentiation assay but a proliferation assay relying on the biochemical changes inherent in intracellular ATP variation that occur with changes in the proliferative status of cells. HALO® detects the changes in intracellular ATP which acts as a limiting substrate for a highly sensitive luciferin / luciferase reaction, in much the same manner as a luciferase-reporter assay is performed. No unidentifiable or questionable colonies to count manually. HALO® is an instrument-based and therefore non-subjective assay.
  • The "primitiveness" of a cell is directly related to its proliferative capability, which in turn is directly related to the intracellular ATP concentration produced. Therefore, more primitive cells produce greater amounts of intracellular ATP and this is observed with HALO®.
  • There is no need to peer down a microscope to count colonies any more. HALO® has made life much easier and more reliable for you.

 

 

 

HALO® allows you to perform assays on:

  • The evaluation stage of the LTC-IC assay.
  • Primitive (HPP-SP) and mature, multifunctional stem cells (CFC-GEMM).
  • Erythropoietic progenitors and precursors (BFU-E and CFU-E).
  • Myelomonocytic progenitors and precursors (GM-CFC, G-CFC, M-CFC and if required, even Eo-CFC and Baso-CFC).
  • Megakaryocytic progenitor cells (Mk-CFC).
  • Progenitor cells of T-lymphocytes (T-CFC).
  • B-lymphocytes (B-CFC).

Each population can be assayed individually or in multiple combinations side-by side for virtually any research application ranging from developmental biology to gene therapy. In additional all of these populations can be assayed from numerous tissues and organs from 5 different species namely, human, non-human primate, dog, rat and mouse.

Some applications include:

  • Embryonic stem cell and primordial germ cell proliferation and differentiation.
  • Developmental lympho-hematopoiesis.
  • Hierarchical and organization structure of the lympho-hematopoietic system.
  • Determination of new growth factors or cytokines.
  • Distinguishing between proliferation and differentiation factors.
  • Drug, radiation and other environmental perturbations.
  • Microenvironmental studies (see also LUMENESC™).
  • Lympho-hematopoietic content of transgenic animals.
  • Transplantation of nude mice.
  • Direct comparison of cell content of multiple hematopoiteic tissues and organs.
  • Correlation of multiple parameters simulatenously, e.g. proliferative status, phenotypic analysis, gene expression analysis, serum cytokine or growth factor analysis.
  • Gene therapy.
  • Cellular expression genetic regulation.

All of these and many more applications can now be performed using

  • HALO®-96 MeC (Methyl Cellulose) for clonal growth of cells, or
  • HALO®-96 SEC (Suspension Expansion Culture

 

LINKS

Click here to see how HALO® Works

Click here to Compare the Different HALO® Platforms with the Colony-Forming Assay (CFA)

Click here to see How HALO® can Replace the Colony-Forming Assay

Click here for help in Deciding which HALO® Platform is Right for Your Application.

Download the HALO®-96 MeC Research Kit Protocol

Download the HALO®-96 SEC Research Kit Protocol