About Us
What is Flow Cytometry
- Cytometry is the measurement of chemical and/or physical characteristics of cells.
- In FLOW cytometry, these measurements are made as cells in fluid suspension pass one by one through a measurement apparatus, the flow cytometer.
- Traditional flow cytometers measure fluorescence intensity and light scatter.
- Imaging cytometers measure size, shape, location, and texture in addition to intensity.
- Distinct measurements are taken from each cell in a sample, giving a distribution as opposed to an average.
How Flow Cytometry Works
- Cells pass one at a time through focused laser beams.
- The light that emerges from each cell is collected.
- The collected light is evaluated by graphical presentation.
- For sorting, cells of interest are captured and purified (>98% purity in most cases).
- For imaging, pixels are tracked down the detector surface and reconstructed by the software.
Common Applications
- Apoptosis and viability
- Cell receptors
- Cytokines
- Activation molecules
- Fluorescent proteins
- Cell counting
- Cell sorting
- DNA content and cell cycle
- Proliferation
- Rare event analysis
- Cytometric bead arrays
- Microbial viability
- Intracellular markers
- Phagocytosis