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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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"Repeat Cytometry: Improving Measurement of Single Cells in an Optofluidic Device"
Gregory A. Cooksey, Ph.D.
Paul N. Patrone, Ph.D.
Anthony J. Kearsley, Ph.D.
Applied and Computational Mathematics Division
Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Commercial flow cytometers are highly utilized clinical and research instruments that are optimized to make thousands of single-cell measurements per second. However, inherent instrument variability coupled with changes in operating conditions or procedures can hinder day-to-day and lab-to-lab comparability of data. Moreover, difficulty developing informed mathematical analyses prevents cytometers from having well-characterized uncertainties, thereby limiting their ability to detect rare events (a task nonetheless suited to their throughput). To address these issues, we have developed an optofluidic system with multiple measurement regions to improve understanding of object variability and rare event detection. Monolithic construction of integrated waveguides enables replicate measurement regions to be placed around multiple laser interrogation regions along a single microfluidic stream. We will discuss the physical principles and mathematical analyses that determine fundamental measurement uncertainties of single cells in flow. In that context, we will discuss design strategies and signals analyses that improve uncertainty of fluorescence intensity, better resolves coincident events, and, overall, provide analytical tools that enable measurement comparability, improve cell counting and rare event detection.
