Hello Keerthana

You must keep in mind that A flow cytometer has five main components:

1-A flow cell - liquid stream (sheath fluid), which carries and aligns the cells so that they pass single file through the light beam for sensing

2-A measuring system - commonly used are measurement of impedance (or conductivity) and optical systems - lamps (mercury, xenon); high-power water-cooled lasers (argon, krypton, dye laser); low-power air-cooled lasers (argon (488 nm), red-HeNe (633 nm), green-HeNe, HeCd (UV)); diode lasers (blue, green, red, violet) resulting in light signals

3-A detector and Analogue-to-Digital Conversion (ADC) system - which generates FSC and SSC as well as fluorescence signals from light into electrical signals that can be processed by a computer

4- An amplification system - linear or logarithmic

5- A computer for analysis of the signals.

The technology has applications in a number of fields, including molecular biology, pathology, immunology, plant biology and marine biology. It has broad application in medicine (especially in transplantation, hematology, tumor immunology and chemotherapy, prenatal diagnosis, genetics and sperm sorting for sex preselection). In marine biology, the autofluorescent properties of photosynthetic plankton can be exploited by flow cytometry in order to characterise abundance and community structure. In protein engineering, flow cytometry is used in conjunction with yeast display and bacterial display to identify cell surface-displayed protein variants with desired properties.

Now lets talk about requirement.

1- What is your budget.

2- What type of cells do u want to study.

3- Do you want a signle antibody or multiple antibodies to study at one particular time.

4- How many lasers do u want to be there in the machine.

Because Modern instruments usually have multiple lasers and fluorescence detectors. The current record for a commercial instrument is ten lasers[BD LSR-9 Flow Cytometer with its nine lasers ] and 18 fluorescence detectors. Increasing the number of lasers and detectors allows for multiple antibody labeling, and can more precisely identify a target population by their phenotypic markers. Certain instruments can even take digital images of individual cells, allowing for the analysis of fluorescent signal location within or on the surface of cells.

In Short In cell biology, flow cytometry is a laser-based, biophysical technology employed in cell counting, cell sorting, biomarker detection and protein engineering, by suspending cells in a stream of fluid and passing them by an electronic detection apparatus. It allows simultaneous multiparametric analysis of the physical and chemical characteristics of up to thousands of particles per second.

Flow cytometry is routinely used in the diagnosis of health disorders, especially blood cancers, but has many other applications in basic research, clinical practice and clinical trials. A common variation is to physically sort particles based on their properties, so as to purify populations of interest.

You have to read about the basics and match them with your project in order to know, which machine fits your research work.

Thanks & Best regards

Hello Keerthana

You must keep in mind that A flow cytometer has five main components:

1-A flow cell - liquid stream (sheath fluid), which carries and aligns the cells so that they pass single file through the light beam for sensing

2-A measuring system - commonly used are measurement of impedance (or conductivity) and optical systems - lamps (mercury, xenon); high-power water-cooled lasers (argon, krypton, dye laser); low-power air-cooled lasers (argon (488 nm), red-HeNe (633 nm), green-HeNe, HeCd (UV)); diode lasers (blue, green, red, violet) resulting in light signals

3-A detector and Analogue-to-Digital Conversion (ADC) system - which generates FSC and SSC as well as fluorescence signals from light into electrical signals that can be processed by a computer

4- An amplification system - linear or logarithmic

5- A computer for analysis of the signals.

The technology has applications in a number of fields, including molecular biology, pathology, immunology, plant biology and marine biology. It has broad application in medicine (especially in transplantation, hematology, tumor immunology and chemotherapy, prenatal diagnosis, genetics and sperm sorting for sex preselection). In marine biology, the autofluorescent properties of photosynthetic plankton can be exploited by flow cytometry in order to characterise abundance and community structure. In protein engineering, flow cytometry is used in conjunction with yeast display and bacterial display to identify cell surface-displayed protein variants with desired properties.

Now lets talk about requirement.

1- What is your budget.

2- What type of cells do u want to study.

3- Do you want a signle antibody or multiple antibodies to study at one particular time.

4- How many lasers do u want to be there in the machine.

Because Modern instruments usually have multiple lasers and fluorescence detectors. The current record for a commercial instrument is ten lasers[BD LSR-9 Flow Cytometer with its nine lasers ] and 18 fluorescence detectors. Increasing the number of lasers and detectors allows for multiple antibody labeling, and can more precisely identify a target population by their phenotypic markers. Certain instruments can even take digital images of individual cells, allowing for the analysis of fluorescent signal location within or on the surface of cells.

In Short In cell biology, flow cytometry is a laser-based, biophysical technology employed in cell counting, cell sorting, biomarker detection and protein engineering, by suspending cells in a stream of fluid and passing them by an electronic detection apparatus. It allows simultaneous multiparametric analysis of the physical and chemical characteristics of up to thousands of particles per second.

Flow cytometry is routinely used in the diagnosis of health disorders, especially blood cancers, but has many other applications in basic research, clinical practice and clinical trials. A common variation is to physically sort particles based on their properties, so as to purify populations of interest.

You have to read about the basics and match them with your project in order to know, which machine fits your research work.

Thanks & Best regards

You will have to be specific about the purpose you want to use it for, so that we can help you choose.

Sibtain gave a very good overview. Also, check on the power and cooling requirements for the lasers you choose, I know for an older FACS machine from 2004 one laser (argon?) needed a separate 60 amp power line and a water chiller to keep it cool (noisy and requires plumbing-with potential water leaks). I would try to stay with air cooled lasers with low power requirements. Also check on laser maintenance, will any require periodic use (weekly/monthly) to keep them functioning properly. And do you want to "collect" the sorted cells for further analysis (i.e, growing in cell culture, RT-PCR, etcetera), that can be a separate option. As can be how many channels/cell populations that you can collect during the same run.

Now the newer machines may have gotten around some of the above issue with the lasers, but it is something I would discuss with a sales rep. "and" also with a senior technical support scientist (a sales rep. may not know the details about each laser). Also, ask for references of labs that have the machine you are interested in getting and contact them to hear about their experience with it, and also have a demo of the unit using live cells before purchasing.

Some FACS have the ability to run samples automatically, such as the BD FACScanto II. Good service is also important. It is also important to consider one step into the future and question what kind of cell sorter you want to get later on. It would not be a bad idea to get them from the same company.

Thank you all..