I did my PhD in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. My research focused on mathematical modeling of the cell cycle in leukemia and involved experiments with cell lines. During that time, I had to count cells with a hemocytometer so often to track growth that I got tired and decided to build an app, HemocyTap, and share my knowledge on the topic here to help as many people as possible.

Here’s something a bit unusual for me, that I believe will help many of you in your quest to count cells reliably and faster – another hemocytometer app! I leave it to Nick Bauer, PhD, the creator of the app, to present it to you himself. You’ll be seeing him as an active contributor to the site in the coming months and he’s also an expert in the field!

Hemocytometers are still standard equipment for determining cell culture concentrations. Automated cell counters are making inroads, but they are fairly expensive, and thus overkill for the occasional user. Most of the pain of using a hemocytometer comes from the mechanics of it—a metal counter, paper, pen, and calculator. What if we eliminated all of that?

My name is Dr. Nicholas Bauer. As a postdoc and Windows Phone user, there were no good Hemocytometer apps available for me. So, I built my own and released it for all three major devices: Hemocytometer Sidekick (see links below). Armed with my app, I now look forward to using the hemocytometer! I thoughtfully designed the interface to be a utility that could be quickly loaded, counts recorded, and a usable result available in seconds after the last count is recorded.

Main features:

  • Use any number or location of squares on the fly
  • Use the full grid or the center square by zooming with your fingers
  • Unique eyes-free counter design—large tapping area for incrementing and sliding mechanism for decrement. If you make a mistake, no need to take your eyes off the sample.
  • Satisfying sounds recorded from a physical metal tally counter
  • Choice of one, two, or viability counters
  • Built-in dilution calculator

Trust me, you won’t want to go back to your old metal counter and paper after using Hemocytometer Sidekick! Hemocytometer Sidekick is available today on all major devices. Give it a try and let me know what you think! I provide a 10-use trial (15 days on Windows), after which it is less than the cost of a sandwich. One sandwich for years of easier cell counting—a pretty great deal!
I’m actively seeking to expand and improve the app, so if you think something is missing, let me know with the Feedback link in the app.




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If you’re looking for an app that can plot experiments, e-mail your data, or get some other neat advanced features, also take a look at Maria Fuentes’s HemocyTap, the original Hemocytometer app by the proprietor of this website. You can’t go wrong either way.

– Nick Bauer, PhD


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