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What are the three main components of a flow cytometer?
Posted June 22, 2020
Answer
The three main components of a flow cytometer are the fluidics, optics, and electronics.
- Fluidics: The fluidics system is responsible for transporting the cells one by one from the sample tube through the flow cell, and all the way to the collection tubes (in the case of cell sorters) or to the waste.
- Optics: The optics system handles illumination and light collection within the flow cytometer, including lasers, lenses, filters, and detectors that convert light to photocurrent.
- Electronics: Electronics are designed to digitize and process the photocurrent generated from the detector, and save it for subsequent analysis.
Additional resources
Fundamentals of Flow Cytometry Cell Meter™ FITC-Annexin V Binding Apoptosis Assay Kit *Optimized for Flow Cytometry* Picot, J., Guerin, C. L., Le Van Kim, C., & Boulanger, C. M. (2012). Flow cytometry: retrospective, fundamentals and recent instrumentation. Cytotechnology, 64(2), 109-130. Nolan, J. P., & Condello, D. (2013). Spectral flow cytometry. Current protocols in cytometry, 63(1), 1-27.