Use of flow and laser scanning cytometry to study mechanisms regulating cell cycle and controlling cell death

Applications of FC and more recently LSC in the fields of cell cycle progression and cell death already have revealed a wealth of knowledge about mechanisms involved in regulation of these pathways. The cytometry instrumentation and the associated methodologies complement tools of molecular biology by providing information that is unavailable from the latter alone. The use of cytometry side by side with classic molecular biology methods offers the means for deeper exploration of these mechanisms at molecular and cellular levels. Recent years brought the availability of new cytometric probes that sense the functional changes in the cell, such as chemical modifications (phosphorylation, acetylation, ubiquitinylation, and so forth) of the regulatory molecules, or their translocations between different cell compartments. Such probes will be particularly useful in mechanistic studies on cell cycle and cell death. One expects that the progress in these fields will expand at a continuously accelerating pace, propelled by development of new methodologies and probes. One of the dominating motors for this progress will be further development of cytometry instrumentation and the applicability of this instrumentation, methods, and probes.