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.

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.

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.

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?

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

I have been studying Biological Markers (biomarkers) for over 25 years, but last 5 years they have exploded and become a key bioanalytical component to a drug’s success. Biomarkers are used to support drug…

The challenges and obstacles to including flow cytometry in multi-center clinical trials are well-known. The solutions the KCAS team offers can eliminate risks commonly associated with lost or delayed shipments and allow for batching, which reduces the overall cost of conducting flow cytometric testing. As a result, our customers can…