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Flow Cytometry

Flow Cytometry

The development of flow cytometry techniques began in 1934 with initial attempts by Andrew Moldavan, a bacteriologist who counted the cells in a flowing capillary system. Moldavan pumped cells through a capillary tube focused under a microscope for visualization. The invention of photometry allowed the measurement of differentially-stained cells, and Louis Kamentsky developed the first multiparameter flow cytometer in 1965 to identify and count the cancer cells in cervical tissue specimens.
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Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Measuring Erythrocyte Complement Receptor 1 Using Flow Cytometry

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Characterization of flow cytometer instrument sensitivity.

Robert A Hoffman¹, James C S Wood

¹BD Biosciences, San Jose, California, USA.

Current Protocols in Cytometry

|September 5, 2008

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study introduces a method to measure fluorescence sensitivity in flow cytometry by focusing on resolution. It quantizes how well dim cells can be distinguished from background noise using detection efficiency and optical background measurements.

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Area of Science:

Biotechnology
Analytical Chemistry
Cell Biology

Background:

Flow cytometry is crucial for analyzing cell populations.
Accurate measurement of dim fluorescent cells is challenging.
Existing methods may not fully capture resolution-based sensitivity.

Purpose of the Study:

To define and practically measure fluorescence sensitivity in terms of resolution for flow cytometry.
To establish a method for quantifying the ability to resolve dimly fluorescent subpopulations.
To characterize flow cytometer performance using critical factors.

Main Methods:

Measuring detection efficiency (Q) and optical background (B).
Focusing on the standard deviation of population distributions, not mean intensity.
Developing a practical and robust approach for these measurements.

Main Results:

Quantified fluorescence sensitivity based on resolution.
Demonstrated the impact of detection efficiency and optical background on resolving dim cells.
Provided a method to determine the minimum resolvable fluorescence intensity.

Conclusions:

Accurate measurement of detection efficiency and optical background is essential for characterizing flow cytometer performance.
This approach enables better analysis of dimly fluorescent particles.
Improved fluorescence sensitivity measurement enhances the ability to distinguish cell populations.