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.

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-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?

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.

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.

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…

Although bioanalysis is KCAS’ principal area of expertise, we are always considering how we can build around those capabilities to ensure that we can provide optimal service for our clients. Our current breadth of service enables us to provide a comprehensive approach during non-GLP pre-clinical studies where it is feasible…

Why is Viability Staining so important for flow cytometry analysis? It seems pretty easy, just mix your cells with antibody conjugates, incubate, wash and you are ready to acquire, but actually cell staining for flow cytometry analysis is far from simple, particularly when it comes to the optimal distinguishing of rare cell populations, or in the deciphering of a complex immune response. There are some key considerations to optimizing flow cytometry cell staining and it requires a disciplined approach to understand the impact of certain steps on the staining process. So, how well do you plan and optimize your staining conditions to ensure the highest quality of flow cytometry data? In this blog, we explore some rules of thumb for Good Staining Practices for flow cytometry

Data can be the most important aspect of a GxP organization. Storage complexity and requirements are increasing, and cloud solutions can be an attractive option for maintaining this ever-growing pool of data. When considerations…

As a Senior Director for Discovery in the pharma division at KCAS, I would like people to think of “Bioanalytical Discovery” as a stage in drug development; one where you are doing your final…