BIOFLOAT™ Culture Plates FAQ

BIOFLOAT™ coating technology provides a highly defined, fully inert cell- and protein-repellent surface for cell culture labware and devices. Compact and reproducible spheroids are rapidly generated on BIOFLOAT™ coated surfaces, even with challenging cell types. Moreover, sticky compounds are inhibited to adsorb to your cell culture labware, which enables a better fine-tuning of drug concentration in screening and toxicological studies.

BIOFLOAT™ coating technology is compatible with broad range of human and animal derived cell lines or primary cells. This new technology is developed to generate cell spheroids; therefore, any cell line can be used which are known to form such spheroids or you can develop new organoid models containing spheroids with cell lines of your choice.

Yes, BIOFLOAT™ plates are highly suitable for High-Throughput Screening (HTS), particularly in pharmacological and toxicological experiments. Their design ensures reliable and reproducible spheroid formation, making them ideal for achieving consistent and accurate results across large sample sizes. BIOFLOAT™ 384-well plates, in particular, are widely used across the industry for HTS workflows.

BIOFLOAT™ plates are compatible with a wide range of laboratory equipment, ensuring seamless integration into various workflows. Whether you need to use them with auto-sampling systems or set them up for imaging with microscopes, these plates are designed for maximum efficiency and compatibility.
Additionally, our team of experts is available to assist with integrating BIOFLOAT™ products into your existing equipment, ensuring a smooth and effective setup. Email us at info@facellitate.com

Unopened BIOFLOAT^TM pre-coated plates can be stored for up to 24 months. In case you are storing an open package of 4 plates, make sure that you reseal it accurately to prevent contamination. Unopened bottles of BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coating solution can be stored for up to 18 months. After opening, the bottles of BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coating solution can be stored for four weeks at 4°C.

All BIOFLOAT™ products do not contain any reactive groups, which can react with other chemicals.

BIOFLOAT™ is a nonhazardous good – it contains no substances that are a risk to health. The products are completely biocompatible and non-cell toxic.

All products are packaged sterile, further sterilization is not necessary.

BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coating solution was designed for culture of eukaryotic cells. All products undergo a quality control to ensure the sterility and for the exclusion of bacterial endotoxins. Therefore, our products are not cell toxic and support the formation of vital cell spheroids.

Our precoated plates consist of polystyrene (PS) and the BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coating solution is filled in bottles consist of polyethylene terephthalate (PETG). In Tab.2 chemical resistances of PS and PETG are listed.

Tab. 2 List of chemical resistance

Our BIOFLOAT™ products were developed for cell culture water-based applications. In water-based solutions such as cell culture buffers our products are very stable.  The BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coating solution as well as the coating of the BIOFLOAT™ pre-coated plate are not resistant against organic solvent e.g. DMSO in high concentrations ( >1 %(v/v)).

The BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coating can be easily used to create a homogeneous and robust coating for your cell culture products, which is stable under standard culture conditions. One pipetting or rinsing step is enough to passivate your surface on the nanometer scale without altering the geometry of your device. The coating solution allows to treat different formats of plates, microfluidic devices or bioreactors, which are amenable for 3D spheroid screening approaches or organoid models in cancer research or toxicology.

The BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coating solution is applicable to a broad range of hydrophobic polymer and glass surfaces such as polystyrene (PS), polycarbonate (PC), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyethersulfone (PES), cycloolefin copolymer, polyvinyliden fluoride (PVDF), polyethylene (PE) and optical quartz glass.

In order to ensure a high affinity of the coating, the culture surfaces MUST NOT be tissue-culture treated. Culture ware compatible with the BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coating solution are labeled as non-adherent cell culture or not-treated suspension culture products from common suppliers.

BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coating solution instantly creates a monomolecular coating on your surface, which does not modify the surface geometry of your device. Owing to its highly anti-adhesive properties, cell-to-cell interactions are favored, leading to the formation of highly uniform spheroids which float in the medium without interaction with the surface. The coating strongly adheres to the surface and is stable under standard culture conditions including repetitive media exchange.

BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coated well-plates are compatible for test systems using fluorescent light (excitation and emission wavelength 380 nm – 780 nm). Furthermore, with BIOFLOAT™ FLEX also UV-plates can be coated to allow measurements in the range of 260 nm to 280 nm.

BIOFLOAT™ disposable cell culture products can be disposed similar as your standard cell culture plates. After using our products in cell culture, the plates or any other used surfaces are autoclaved and discarded in residual waste.

BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coating solution in the delivered bottle as well as BIOFLOAT™ pre-coated plates are not autoclavable. The BIOFLOAT™ FLEX coating solution has a boiling temperature in the range of 70°C-100°C. Only  BIOFLOAT™FLEX treated devices consisting of the following materials are autoclavable (121°C, 15 psig for 20 minutes): polymethylpentene (PMP), polypropylene (PP) ,polypropylene Copolymer (PPCO), ethylene-chlorotrifluoroethylene copolymer (ECTFE), fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), polyfluoroalkoxy (PFA), polytetrafluorethylen (PTFE),polysulfone (PSF), polyetherimide (PEI), polyvinylidenfluoride (PVDF), ethylene propylene rubber (EPR).