Could this easy-to-use system solve your flow cytometry woes?

In this article, we speak with Kamala Tyagarajan, Director of Flow Cytometry Assays and Applications at Luminex, about how her team works to empower researchers to design innovative experiments and achieve reliable results. Here, Tyagarajan highlights the importance of simplicity in the design of instrumentation and assays and explains how the provision of technical and application-based solutions from Luminex helps customers get the most from their flow cytometry platforms.

What are the biggest challenges your users are currently facing?

Flow cytometry users need to characterize a variety of cellular samples in research, manufacturing, and QC environments. Challenges we see users encounter include limited access and affordability for instruments and sometimes reagents. Instrumentation or software complexity whilst setting up and acquiring data can be intimidating to some users and analyzing the outputs to extract meaningful information for every experiment can often be complicated or time-consuming. In some scenarios, there is limited or precious cellular sample available and multiparametric experiments need to be designed to extract maximal information. Other issues, such as complicated maintenance and QC for ensuring reliable and repeatable data, difficulties in cross-training others in a lab, and large biohazardous waste streams, can limit adaptability. Many of these factors result in flow cytometry still being considered as somewhat of an art and not quite an easy and robust analytical technique for everyone.

Why choose a Guava^® easyCyte™ System?

Complexity simplified is the mantra for our company and technologies. The Guava^® easyCyte™ systems pack a lot of power in a compact, benchtop format, allowing for precise and reliable results for a variety of sample and application types.

The Guava easyCyte has a variety of features and benefits that assist a wide range of applications, users, and price points. The compact size and simplified handling allow for more individual labs to own their instruments and the same technology can be utilized in all phases or departments of a company, ranging from initial discovery-based research to manufacturing and quality control. Plus, cross-site studies can become easier and more reliable, due to to the calibration and ease of operation of the system. The easyCyte system is designed for users in a variety of environments worldwide and spans users, from the novice to the flow-savvy expert. Our users range from cell biologists, immunologists, protein engineers, environmental scientists, microbiologists, and more. Many of these users find the platform useful for performing core everyday functions, such as cell count and viability, as well as for more complex multiparametric cell health, signaling, or immunology related questions.

One of the key aspects of the instrument is its innovative microcapillary-based fluidics design. The combination of microcapillary technology with a positive displacement syringe pump allows for accurate and direct absolute counting, without the use of external beads. This means lower numbers of cells can be used per analysis, allowing for lower overall reagent and sample costs with the additional advantage of low waste generation.

Another tremendous feature of the system is the intuitive, user-friendly software interface that greatly simplifies assessment of results and often means that customers are trained and ready in just a few hours. Pre-set custom software modules for our validated assay kits allow users to obtain the answers they need without complicated calculations. The intuitive InCyte software allows the user to perform even complex multi-parametric assays with simple workflows for analysis, compensation, heat mapping, and even IC50 and EC50 curves. Furthermore, the automation interface is intuitive and offers reliable walkaway acquisition for up to 96 samples, with in-well paddle-based mixers to ensure consistent and robust results.

The new 4^th generation easyCyte™ is the latest update to the product, further empowering researchers to produce innovative and reliable results in tube-based or plate-based formats. Updates include: gain-independent compensation, which allows for increased ease of use for assay setup; new robotic interface, which facilitates walk-away integration with liquid handling systems and continuous acquisition; new modules for our customized assays, which further amplify ease-of-use, as well as features that facilitate advance multiparametric analysis. Lastly, model upgradeability delivers confidence in meeting future research needs. These features, and more, aim to increase the usability of these systems.

How do you help customers get the best possible data from their flow cytometers?

The Guava^® easyCyte™ System

• The first benchtop cytometer on the market, launched over 20 years ago

• Novel microcapillary fluidics facilitates robust results combined with absolute cell counts

• Cited in approximately 1,000 publications each year

• The new fourth-generation easyCyte is the latest update

Understanding the range of applications people use our instruments for and designing our system, software, and assays to meet those needs is an integral part of our approach. We focus on keeping things simple, including the development of no-wash assays where possible, validated kits, detailed user guides and inserts, and software outputs that provide the answers the user needs while simplifying complexity. Additional aspects set our end users up for success. These include multiple training options with our highly skilled field application scientists who walk the user through acquisition and analysis on the instruments for their specific applications. Our technical support specialists cover users all over the world and guide customers through their support needs. Additionally, our website provides resources such as user manuals, application notes, videos, and tools to help the user best optimize their research.

What do you see for Luminex in the future?

Luminex offers a breadth of technologies for protein, molecular, and cellular analysis. We offer a breadth of offerings for cellular analysis in particular, from the intuitive Guava^® Muse^® Cell Analyzer that simplifies flow cytometry, to the powerful Amnis^® ImageStream^® System that enables new discoveries. As the flow cytometry field evolves and our application areas and user types expand, we hope not only to evolve our hardware and software solutions but also bring out simplified assays and integrated solutions to benefit new application areas.

Top tips for flow cytometry success

• Flow cytometry success starts with finding a platform that best fits your experimental needs, as often users are forced to use the instrument in their core labs. Ease of use is an essential quality for platforms that will be used and maintained daily, and reliable QC methods ensure the instrument is performing to its highest quality and providing accurate results for a range of experiment types.
• The next key tip is related to sample preparation. Ensuring your cells are healthy, having good experimental design (in terms of number of cells and appropriately chosen labeled markers), and running proper controls are all critical for obtaining accurate results. Making sure that your samples can be acquired in a timely fashion also improves confidence that shifts in experimental results are due to changes being seen in your samples and not due to post-prep artifacts.
• Lastly, simplified analysis allows for quick time-to-answer and easy interpretation of experimental results.

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