In the Chemyx website, you can find exciting techniques like flow cytometry. Flow cytometry is an outstanding technique for rare cell identification and environmental monitoring. However, the method is expensive, and the instrumentation makes it challenging to have this equipment in all the Biology laboratories. Acoustic methods help to focus the cells which allow faster identification of cells without complicated devices as an expensive fluorescent coupled to analog and digital converters. The goal is to generate focused particle streams using one-dimensional acoustic standing waves and integrate this with low-cost light source and cheap detectors. For that reason, Chemyx syringe pump systems are important to help the development of these integrated systems.
In this small review, you will find the most important features about acoustic focusing and how this technique improves the newest faster cytometer. The advantages include low cost, high processability and the generation of new technologies. Moreover, the basis of high-throughput cytometry is achieved with these improvements. Chemyx syringe pumps provide the flow rates and the reliable operation needed for high flow rate for cytometric evaluation.
Inexpensive flow cytometry using syringe pumps and acoustic detection.
Perhaps the best and simple method to achieve the focusing goal is through one-dimensional acoustic waves which focuses to concentrate particles and characterize them efficiently with a laser. The capillaries are microfluidics that may be constructed with photolithography or with high precision 3D printing. The waves pass through the micro-channels and parallel focus streams are created; the system is cheap and simple and provides a practical platform for cell identification (Figure 1). In some cases, the acoustic flow cytometry may lead to in high-throughput flow cytometry for portable and point-of-care devices. These outstanding results are obtained through a Nexus syringe pump from Chemyx with a 5 ml syringe (Austin Suthanthiraraj et al., 2012).
Figure 1. The Lift force passes through the microfluidic rectangular channels and the acoustic acting on the particle bringing towards the center of the parabolic flow profile; this facilitates the laser focusing and the detection of big cells at high flow rates(Austin Suthanthiraraj et al., 2012).
Multinode Acoustic Focusing for Parallel Flow Cytometry
Flow cytometry can measure and analyze the properties of a group of target cells. However, the simultaneous measuring of multiple cell properties has fundamental and intrinsic limitations, especially for larger particles from 50 to 100 um, imposing high flow rates such as one hundred microliters/minute. The implementation of multimode acoustic focusing leads to the particle positioning from red cells to 107 um diameter. The parallel flow technique with 37 channels can focus different cells as the CD4+ and for the immunophenotyping high throughput assay; the high volume flow and large particle identification is a crucial advantage of multiple channels focusing. A Chemyx Nexus 3000 pump the cells at 50 μL/min Samples (particles or blood) at the same time the focusing field was perpendicular to the flow direction to ensure the cell detection(Piyasena et al., 2012).
Bibliography
Austin Suthanthiraraj, P.P., Piyasena, M.E., Woods, T.A., Naivar, M.A., Ĺpez, G.P., Graves, S.W., 2012. One-dimensional acoustic standing waves in rectangular channels for flow cytometry. Methods 57, 259–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymeth.2012.02.013
Piyasena, M.E., Suthanthiraraj, P.P.A., Applegate, R.W., Goumas, A.M., Woods, T.A., López, G.P., Graves, S.W., 2012. Multinode acoustic focusing for parallel flow cytometry. Anal. Chem. 84, 1831–1839. https://doi.org/10.1021/ac200963n