Receptor occupancy (RO) assays are a powerful tool for pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic evaluations of candidate drugs and biologics. RO assays can also be used toward dose selection for candidate molecules being evaluated in clinical trials. Flow cytometry-based RO assays are currently being used in many sectors of biopharmaceutical drug development. Consider these five things to know about RO assays if you are planning to use this type of assay in your preclinical research.

Fluorescence-activated cell sorting is a powerful tool for basic and clinical research because individual cells can be separated from a heterogeneous sample and used for downstream analysis or therapeutic applications. A fluorescent activated cell sorter works in a similar way as a flow cytometer. A single-cell suspension of fluorescently labeled cells pass through a fluidic system, and lasers excite the fluorescent molecules, which causes a change in the charge of the droplet containing the cell. This shift in charge is used to divert each droplet into a collection tube so relatively pure cell populations can be collected. Cell sorting can be done by any researcher, but many scientists work with contract research organizations that have expertise optimizing protocols for different yields or levels of purity.

The term 'Dendritic Cells' (DCs) represents a family of immune cells derived from CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow, with various functions that provide a key link between the innate and adaptive immune responses. The most widely described function of DCs is to capture, process, and present antigens to adaptive immune cells and mediate their transition to effector functions. In fact, DCs are the only antigen-presenting cells capable of stimulating naïve T-cells. In recent years, DCs have become the focus of translational research efforts to describe the role these cells play in allergies, autoimmunity, and cancer as well as their role in vaccine responses. In this blog, we explore the flow cytometry approaches used to examine DCs and their potential as therapeutic targets.

Phosphoflow cytometry assays are becoming a valuable tool for researchers developing immuno-oncology applications because data from these assays can provide critical mechanistic insights. Phosphoflow assays measure phosphorylated proteins in cells, which is a critical readout for cell signaling responses. Check out these five facts about phosphoflow cytometry and consider adding this tool to your cytometry toolbox.

Flow cytometry is a valuable research tool because it can generate abundant amounts of very detailed data, but this often means that scientists need to deal with moving and storing large amounts of digital data. In addition, many flow cytometry users run their experiments at a site separate from their lab or work with an offsite contract research organization (CRO) that runs their flow cytometry experiments. This means that flow cytometry data transfer is an issue that researchers must address even in the planning stages of their flow cytometry experiments. Consider these factors related to transferring large datasets for flow cytometry.

With the rapid progress of immune-modulating drug development, flow cytometry has found itself increasingly at the forefront of clinical trial assessment of safety and efficacy. This is not without challenges since flow cytometry analysis can be complicated and expensive, too often employs idiosyncratic experimental and analytical methods. So how can a platform without standardized methods and processes, be successfully applied to evaluate clinical endpoints?

Flow cytometry is an appealing technique because it enables users to analyze multiple cell types in a single experiment. In the early days of flow cytometry, when cytometers had one or two lasers, and only a limited number of fluorescent probes existed, complex staining panels may have had only four colors. 

With the rapid progress of immune-monitoring drug development, flow cytometry has found itself increasingly at the forefront of clinical trial assessment of safety and efficacy. This is not without challenges since flow cytometry analysis can be complicated and expensive, too often employs idiosyncratic experimental and analytical methods. So how can a platform without standardized methods and processes, be successfully applied to evaluate clinical endpoints? Several novel approaches to instrument calibration and experimental design are now helping to establish the harmonization of flow cytometry across multiple clinical labs. In this blog, we explore the importance of flow cytometry instrument setup and maintenance when analyzing samples from clinical trials.

In several of our blogs, we have discussed the power of flow cytometry to identify unique cell populations, both rare and abundant. Flow cytometry also offers the opportunity to actually sort out the cells of interest for a variety of downstream applications. Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) and immunomagnetic cell sorting (MACS) are two of the most widely used methods for the isolation of phenotypically identified cells. Read more to make sense of FACS, MACS, and finding the best separation strategy for your needs.

What is the primary role of Natural Killer (NK) cells? Natural killer (NK) cells are the predominant innate immune cells that mediate anti-tumor and anti-viral responses, and therefore possess good clinical utilization (Abel et al. 2018). Natural killer cells comprise 10–15% of peripheral blood lymphocytes and classically display a half-life of approximately 7–10 days in the circulation (Moretta et al. 2000).

Due to its ability to analyze multiple parameters across different cell types within a sample, flow cytometry can provide very rich and clinically valuable data sets from even small volumes of blood. However, flow cytometry is a challenging platform to master, and requires significant investment into equipment and technical training. So, for many researchers, outsourcing flow cytometry to a Contract Research Organization (CROs) is both cost-effective and the best way to ensure the highest quality of data from their samples. So, what types of flow cytometry applications are the most outsourced to CROs?

The age of cell and gene therapies (CGTs) is upon us! It has been a long road to get to this time. The first gene therapy trial on humans was performed in 1990 by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The first FDA approved CGT came in 2017. One…