What is PIXL?

An ultra-reliable and super-easy-to-use microbial colony picker. PIXL automates imaging, colony recognition, colony selection, and picking; from Petri dishes to multiwell plates.

PIXL Colony Picker

How does PIXL work?

PIXL uses the freshly-cut end of a sterile PickupLine to transfer microbial colonies. It eliminates the requirement for washing cycles and the associated chance of contamination.


PIXL is developed in collaboration with leading synthetic biology incubators, SynCTI and SynbiCITE, and industrial partners SynthACE.

PIXL has a high colony transfer rate when picking a wide range of bacterias.

>99% Transfer Efficiency

With precision agar surface detection on every pick PIXL will never miss a colony.

Use Multiple Plate Types

Compatible with most standard plate types, PIXL allows you to create custom workflows to suit your lab’s needs.


PIXL multiple plate types

PIXL colony picking - Agar sub-surface piercing

Subsurface Picking with PIXL

Pierce the agar to pick submerged colonies or subsurface hyphae. In normal operation, to avoid cross-contamination, you definitely do not want to violently pierce the agar! However, within the settings, agar piercing can optionally be applied to each of your source and target plates.


Pick Diverse Micro-organisms

Out of the box, PIXL is compatible with even the most diverse microorganisms, without the requirement for additional expensive hardware. 

2D and 3D mixing of the nozzle head ensures enough colony material is picked for inoculation.


PIXL colony picking

Interested in seeing PIXL in action?

A PIXL demo is cooler than your average boring sales presentation, we’ll actually do some remote science with you!

Book a PIXL demo
ROTOR+ PIXL

Automate precision colony transfer at ultra-high plate densities.

PIXL with Momentum

A flexible high-throughput high-precision colony picking system that can scale and adjust to future demands.

PhenoBooth+

High-resolution colony imaging.

PIXL in Anaerobic Chamber

Singer Instruments have teamed up with COY Labs, the most cited chamber manufacturer in the world

Struggling to achieve the throughput you desire?

Looking to increase your lab’s productivity?

ROTOR+ PIXL could be the perfect option!

ROTOR+ PIXL for High-throughput colony picking

Prof.Kyle Lauersen using ROTOR+ PIXL to pick colonies

High-throughput screening of green algae transformants

Prof. Kyle Lauersen leads the Sustainable & Synthetic Biology (SSB) group, in the Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) Division, at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

Patrick Cai Synthesising a designer yeast chromosome with the help of PIXL

Synthesising a designer yeast chromosome with the help of PIXL

The Cai lab are one of the teams tackling the Sc2.0 project, an ambitious, global effort to re-design and synthesise an entire yeast genome, to which Patrick and his team will contribute the design and synthesis of at least one of the constituent neochromosomes. 

PIXL is regularly integrated with robotic arms, anaerobic chambers, and in larger workflows. See the available integration options below.

Spending too much time picking colonies by hand?

Are your current methods becoming unreliable and affecting your data?

Interested in speeding up your lab’s productivity with trackable data and walk-away automation?

PIXL with Momentum could be the perfect solution!

PIXL with Momentum for walkaway colony picking

ROTOR+ PIXL

Automate precision colony transfer at ultra-high plate densities.

PIXL with Momentum

A flexible high-throughput high-precision colony picking system that can scale and adjust to future demands.

PIXL in an anaerobic chamber

Automate precision colony picking for anaerobic microorganisms.

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