Everything your cells do — migration, growth, morphology, drug response — visible in brightfield, continuously, without staining, without opening the incubator. 24 wells. Every 5 minutes. Unattended.
Book Free Demo Product Details →Brightfield imaging passes transmitted light through living cells to produce high-contrast images of morphology, confluence, and behavior — without fluorescent dyes, genetic reporters, or any modification to your cells or protocol. What you see is exactly what is there.
All validated in peer-reviewed research. All running inside your CO₂ incubator, unattended, without incubator disruption.
Automated gap closure analysis — 24 wells in parallel, every 5 minutes. AI-powered wound closure rate, t½, relative gap area. ScratchMaker tool for standardized scratches.
Collective cell migration kinetics — continuous time-lapse without incubator disruption. Compare inhibitors, stimulators, and cell lines across 24 conditions simultaneously.
Real-time cell viability after drug addition. Capture onset, peak effect, and recovery. IC50 kinetics from confluency curves — no staining, no endpoint assay required.
Growth kinetics, morphology QC, drug response — continuously for up to 14 days. Brain, cardiac, liver, intestinal and patient-derived organoids. All visible in brightfield.
Capture every moment of cell behavior — division, migration, morphology change — with automated time-lapse every 5 minutes. Export AVI, PNG stack, CSV. ImageJ compatible.
Continuous growth curves without manual counting. Automated alerts at defined confluency thresholds. Contamination detected early — morphology changes visible hours before loss.
Real-time morphology changes after toxin exposure. Brightfield captures cell rounding, blebbing, detachment — quantified as confluency loss over time. No endpoint staining.
HTS-compatible spheroid monitoring in 96-well ULA plates. Size, roundness, growth rate — automated across all wells. Published with University of Regensburg & Fraunhofer EMFT.
Embryo morphology, heart rate, pigmentation — brightfield time-lapse for zebrafish toxicology and drug screening. Contact us for early access and current FOV specifications.
Transmitted light at low intensity causes no measurable cell stress. Image continuously for 14 days without affecting cell health or behavior.
No labeling, no staining, no washing. Place the plate in the system and press start. Works with your existing cells, media, and workflow.
Not snapshots — a complete kinetic curve. See when the drug took effect, whether it was reversible, and how fast cells responded.
Brightfield live cell imaging at €14,000 covers the majority of cell biology assays that fluorescence systems charge €150,000–220,000 for.
For the majority of cell biology assays, brightfield covers everything you need. Here is where the systems differ.
| Feature | zenCELL owl · Brightfield | Incucyte S3 · Fluorescence |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase price | €14,000 one-time | ~€220,000 one-time |
| Annual licence fee | None — included | Mandatory |
| Fluorescence channels | No — brightfield only | Yes — 3 channels |
| Phototoxicity risk | None | Yes — with fluorescence |
| Protocol modification | None required | Labeling / staining needed |
| Scratch assay | ✓ Validated · 50+ publications | ✓ Validated |
| Organoid monitoring | ✓ Brightfield · label-free | ✓ Brightfield + fluorescence |
| Cytotoxicity assay | ✓ Confluency-based | ✓ Fluorescence + brightfield |
| Installation | Any CO₂ incubator · <10 min | Dedicated incubator required |
| 24-well simultaneous | ✓ Full plate | Up to 6 scan positions |
Cell confluency, morphology changes, migration (scratch assay / wound healing assay), cytotoxicity (confluency loss after drug treatment), organoid and spheroid growth, contamination detection, and cell division events. For fluorescence-dependent readouts such as GFP reporters or viability dyes, a fluorescence system is required.
No. Brightfield imaging requires no dyes, labels, or staining. Place your existing plate in zenCELL owl inside the incubator and press start. The system works with any adherent or suspension cell line in standard 24-well plates without protocol changes.
For confluency-based cytotoxicity monitoring — yes. Loss of confluency over time is a direct measure of cell viability that does not require staining. For multiplexed viability assays using Calcein AM and propidium iodide, or for caspase-based apoptosis assays, a fluorescence system is needed.
Brightfield and phase contrast are both transmitted-light techniques. Phase contrast enhances cell edge contrast using a phase ring in the objective — useful for very thin or transparent cells. zenCELL owl uses standard brightfield, which provides sufficient contrast for confluency analysis, migration assays, and morphology changes in most adherent cell lines. The 5MP sensor compensates for the absence of phase optics in most applications.
"Label-free" is the broader term — it encompasses brightfield, phase contrast, DIC, and other transmitted-light techniques that do not require fluorescent labels. zenCELL owl uses brightfield (transmitted LED illumination at ~408 nm) as its label-free imaging modality. All zenCELL owl data is therefore both brightfield and label-free.
Free 20-minute remote demo — real cells, real incubator, full software. No commitment required.
Book Free Demo Product Details →
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Watch zenCELL owl image live inside an incubator. Available.