Improved flow cytometry panel design with a novel automated panel design system

PROJECT SUMMARY FluoroFinder, LLC is developing the FluoroFinder Intellipanel builder, an innovative software system for the automatic calculation of an optimal fluorochrome cytometry panel. Flow cytometry is a ubiquitous technique in cell and molecular biology that is increasingly complex due to recent improvements in instrumental capabilities. It is common for researchers to design cytometry panels that incorporate more than 20-colors in a single experiment. To successfully design a multi-parameter cytometry panel, researchers must incorporate design best practices to optimize fluorochrome excitation/emission spillover, optimize for fluorochrome brightness through antigen density, and they must select antibodies from an extensive and diverse antibody market. Both experts and non-experts would benefit from an approach that automatically calculates an optimal panel based on their instrumental configuration and experimental biomarkers. FluoroFinder has previously developed a manual panel builder that incorporates an extensive multi-supplier database that includes all commercially available instruments, all fluorochromes, and over 3 million antibodies to streamline all aspects of panel design. In this proposal, FluoroFinder will leverage these extensive databases to build the Intellipanel builder. The Intellipanel builder will generate an optimal panel for a user’s experiment by accounting for user specific experimental configurations, employing user and experimental specific gating strategies, and quantitatively minimizing fluorescent spillover. This is expected to significantly reduce the time to develop complex cytometry panels and significantly reduce or potentially eliminate errors in design. This is also expected to reduce the barrier to entry for non-expert researchers that are involved in flow cytometry. The goals of this Phase I proposal are to restructure databases and develop algorithms with the support of expert cytometrists to quantitatively compare fluorochromes (Aim 1), demonstrate efficacy by surveying a panel of cytometry experts on Intellipanel generated panels (Aim 2), and develop an intuitive web application to support a streamlined user experience (Aim 3).