Nanosight

NanoSight was the first successful company that commercialized nanoparticle tracking analysis hardware. Their core technology is the flow-cell combined with a laser head that makes a a light sheet illumination pattern. In the picture above, the head is behind the red handle.

It started as an accessory for microscopes and it evolved as a full-fetched product. One of the keys for their success was the emergence of extracellular vesicles and the challenge to characterize them quickly.

Few people discuss about the Limitations of NTA for Extracellular Vesicles measurements, and NanoSight did a great job at hiding them, and marketing around the problems. They were bought by Malvern Panalytical some years after (unclear for how much).

Today, it's clear NTA has reached a plateau in the knowledge it provides. Malvern is slowly dropping this type of instruments, giving room to other companies such as Particle Metrix and Myriade to grab the spoils.

One of the most pressing limitations of the NanoSight implementation is that it can work with a single color. Changing colors means changing the laser head, which is useful, but lacks the multi-color capabilities of other companies.