Millipore Corporation, a leading provider of technologies, tools and services for the global life science industry, has begun full commercial shipments of its Scepter Handheld Automated Cell Counter to customers worldwide.

The Scepter instrument miniaturizes Coulter cell counting technology found in much larger instruments into a portable device the size of an automated pipette. A graphical display reports the cell count and average cell volume within 20 seconds of inserting the sensor into a cell culture sample. The product, which was announced in the fourth quarter of 2009, has generated strong interest from leading government and commercial laboratories. Millipore expects to continue to increase shipments in North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and Latin America through the remainder of the year.

“We continue to move aggressively to bring innovation and productivity enhancements to the life science research market,” said John Sweeney, vice president of Millipore’s Life Science business. “With the introduction of the Scepter instrument, we now have a range of tools that help life scientists simplify tedious, repetitive tasks and improve the reproducibility of their experiments.”

In addition to counting cells, the Scepter instrument gives researchers immediate insights into cell health. For example, scientists are using the instrument to monitor the transformation of stem cells to a differentiated state. The novel instrument is also being evaluated for such diverse applications as identifying cell types prior to forensic analysis and analyzing the size and consistency of particles during the commercial production of ink.

Millipore is a life science leader providing cutting-edge technologies, tools, and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.