Oxford Optronix

25/05/2026

Not all “hypoxia” experiments are measuring oxygen biology.

Chemical mimetics like CoCl₂ can help activate hypoxia-related pathways, but they do not physically lower dissolved oxygen around cells.

That distinction matters, especially in studies of metabolism, mitochondria, cancer biology, organoids, spheroids, and drug response.

True oxygen control means controlling the environment cells are actually exposed to. With HypoxyLab, researchers can culture and handle cells under controlled oxygen, CO₂, temperature, and humidity, with oxygen set in absolute partial pressure.

For studies where oxygen is the variable, the method matters.

We break down the difference between chemical hypoxia and true oxygen control here:

https://www.oxford-optronix.com/resources/chemical-hypoxia-vs-true-oxygen-control

Chemical hypoxia mimetics such as cobalt chloride can stabilize HIF-1 alpha, but they do not recreate true low-oxygen cell culture. Learn when to use CoCl2 and when controlled oxygen is the better model

22/05/2026

We just posted a short webinar for preclinical brain researchers on what microvascular flow and tissue pO₂ each tell you and why they sometimes disagree.

It includes real examples across:
- Large animal brain injury (flow + PbTO₂)
- mTBI + electrographic seizures (oxygen dysregulation and Bay K8644)
- Stroke PtO₂ example
- MRI validation in fetal sheep

If you work in stroke, TBI, neurovascular coupling, or imaging validation, we think you’ll find it useful.

Presented by Justin Croft, VP Oxford Optronix North America, 22 May 2026

05/05/2026

Organoids are often cultured in CO₂ incubators at near-atmospheric oxygen, even though tissues in the body experience much lower physiological oxygen levels. This mismatch influences viability, differentiation, inflammation, drug response, and reproducibility.

This resource makes the case for treating oxygen as a defined experimental condition, not just background atmosphere.

The tech behind the approach:
- HypoxyLab enables organoid culture under controlled O₂, CO₂, temperature, and humidity, with oxygen set and monitored in true partial pressure units like mmHg.

- OxyLite adds direct dissolved oxygen measurement in media or matrix, helping researchers verify what the organoids are actually experiencing.
For organoid models to become more physiologically relevant and translationally useful, oxygen needs to move from assumed to measured.

Discover how partial-pressure-based physiological oxygen control improves organoid and spheroid viability, maturation and reproducibility, with HypoxyLab and OxyLite enabling precise pO₂ control and monitoring.

15/04/2026

Our latest resource looks at a challenge many labs know well: manual colony counting is slow, subjective, and difficult to standardize. That becomes an even bigger issue as assays scale or move into more complex 3D models.

GelCount helps solve that by automating colony detection with consistent threshold settings, digital image archiving, exportable data, and shareable analysis templates. The result is more objective colony counts, better throughput, and stronger reproducibility across experiments.

A useful reminder that improving assay consistency does not always start with biology alone. Sometimes it starts with the workflow around the readout.

Improve reproducibility in adherent and non-adherent clonogenic and soft agar assays by reducing human fatigue and bias. Learn how the GelCount automated colony counter enhances consistency, accuracy, and throughput in colony formation assays.

10/04/2026

Oxford Optronix was pleased to host the first UrOxyNet Symposium in Halle, bringing together clinical research groups working on urine pO₂ measurement as an early proxy for AKI.

The meeting created a valuable opportunity to share early data, compare analysis approaches, and explore future collaboration across sites.

It was an encouraging first step for the UrOxyNet network and a strong sign of momentum behind this growing area of research.



Read more here: https://www.oxford-optronix.com/news-events/network-for-urine-po2-measurement-in-medicine-uroxynet