Spectrophotometer: new instrument for ultrarapid cell analysis

A new device has been developed for measuring and displaying multiple spectrophotometric properties of biological cells at rates exceeding 500 cells per second. Preliminary observations of human cells from different sites in the body were made at wavelengths of 2537 and 4100 angstroms to estimate cellular nucleic acid per unit volume of individual cells of large populations of cells. Display patterns were obtained which were consistent, and characteristically different for certain of the cell populations studied.