Flow Cytometry Service
Poster
Flow cytometers consist of three main components: the fluidic system, optical system, and electronic system. The fluidic system uses sheath fluid to transport and organize the sample into a single-cell stream. The optical system, with lasers, illuminates the particles, and emitted light is directed to detectors. The electronic system then converts these light signals into electronic data for computer analysis. In the case of an antibody binding assay, antigen-expressing cells are incubated with serial dilutions of the target antibody followed by addition of a fluorophore-labelled secondary antibody. When these cells pass through the laser light of the flow cytometer, three signals are recorded for each particle: Forward scatter (FSC) for the size, Side scatter (SSC) for granularity and a fluorescence emission spectrum. By plotting fluorescence intensity, differences in signal intensity can reveal the expression level of the target molecule.
