Go with the flow: an updated tool for detecting molecules

In the early 1970, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratories developed the flow cytometer, a device that allows for the identification of unknown cells. In a flow cytometer, a single-cell suspension is passed in a continuous flow through a laser beam, with each cell scattering the light in a characteristic manner. A few years ago, researchers at Los Alamos began another project, refining the capabilities of the flow cytometer so that it could analyze not a single cell but a single molecule, allowing scientists to study bacteria at the molecular level, differentiating between individual strains more quickly and with greater accuracy than before. The new flow cytometer shows great promise in a variety of fields where single-molecule study would be valuable, such as genomics and disease transmission.