3D Imaging Flow Cytometer

D Imaging Flow Cytometer NanoCellect BiomedicalIncRESEARCH andampRELATED Other Project InformationPROJECT SUMMARY Fluorescence activated cell sortingFACSor flow cytometry enables clinicians and researchers to quantitatively characterize the physicalcell sizeshapegranularityand biochemicalDNA contentcell cycle distributioncell surface markersand viabilityproperties of cellshowever FACS devices do not produce an image of the cellIncreasing sophistication of research assays now rely on the collection of cells based on their phenotypical and spatial characteristicswith the capabilities offered only by microscopic imaging cytometers having severe limits in throughput and lacking cell isolationWe propose an innovativelow cost design to combine the merits of FACS and microscopicD imaging cytometry without the limits of eachoffering the biomedical research and clinical community a unique tool to address the needs for current and emerging applicationsThe key innovation is based on a significant extension of the spatial coding algorithms our team demonstrated in the past yearsIn the proposed designwe create a special filter with a matrix of periodic slits in front of each PMT detectorThe resulting PMT signal is composed of the multiplexed cell signals modulated by the filterwhich can subsequently be deconvolved to produce fluorescence and scatter generated from different areas of the cellthe imageIn additionwe add sweeping structured light with known positions over time to deconvolved information in the Z axisas wellallowingD image formationIn this Phase I programwe will integrateD imaging technology into our existing WOLF Cell Sorter to produce the very firstD imaging cytometer with cell sorting capabilitiesSince we use conventionalnon pixelated detectorse ghigh speed PMTsfound in conventional flow cytometersthis technology is compatible with existing flow cytometer architectures allowing for wide useEquipped with cell imaging capabilitiesresearchers can track many important biological processes by analyzing not only the intensity but the localization of certain proteins within cytosolicnuclearor cell membrane domains and subdomainsWith the rapidly developing capabilities of handlingbig dataD images of millions of single cells in a flow cytometer provide vast resources for research and disease analysisand rapid growth has been predicted in the market of such high content imaging cytometer cell sorters for emerging applications such as precision medicineWe believe the proposed design is a major breakthrough that can potentially revolutionize the field of flow cytometryand its impact and ramifications on both fundamental biomedical research and clinical applications can be tremendousD Imaging Flow Cytometer NanoCellect BiomedicalIncRESEARCH andampRELATED Other Project InformationPROJECT NARRATIVE The advances proposed here will allow NanoCellect to achieve its missionto advanceD image based flow cytometry technology that can be placed in an affordable bench top deviceThis will be achieved by integratingD cell imaging and relevant software into an easy to use package that will extend the features of the existing WOLFCell Sorter platform