CYTO 2024 Participation Experience: Looking at the Future Development of Flow Cytometry from a Technical Perspective

If you ask anyone who attended CYTO2024, what impressed them the most about CYTO 2024, most visitors are likely to mention the rise of imaging technology.

We will analyze imaging flow cytometry from three aspects: hardware, software, and standardization.

Hardware: Spectral imaging, microfluidics

The molecular information represented by spectrum and the morphological information represented by images will form the basis for the future cytometry. However, currently spectrum and images are independent and have not been integrated yet. For example, the number of fluorescent channels in imaging flow cytometry is relatively small now, which is not only smaller than in spectral flow cytometry, but even smaller than in traditional flowcytometry. Therefore, spectral imaging with both powerful molecular parallel detection capabilities and high-content imaging capabilities will be the next milestone in the development of flow cytometry, where AI technology is also a new direction of development.

Microfluidic technology should not only comply with the general rules of scientific and technological development, but it should also achieve no cross-contamination and high biological safety. At present, there is still a certain gap between microfluidic flow methods and traditional flow methods in terms of flow rate, sorting flux, and number of sorting channels.

Software: AI analysis, cloud computing

The addition of spectroscopy and imaging technology has made flow cytometry data increasingly high-dimensional, so AI analysis will play an extremely important role in the future. For example, in terms of image analysis, AI is required to extract feature information from images, for example determine the stages of the cell cycle, analyze the interaction between immune cells and target cells in cell therapy, and nanoparticle carrier drugs.

AI technology can also be used to discover new cell populations, which requires subsequent multi-omics analysis of the discovered populations in conjunction with sorting. AI big data analysis can unearth treasures hidden beneath the surface.

Another trend in software development is cloud computing, which has the advantages of sufficient computing power, solving problems anytime and anywhere, and model sharing.

Standardization: process automation, data standardization

Automated sample processing equipment and standardized processes are aimed to reduce human operation differences. At the same time, with the introduction of standardized photoelectric sensors such as APD and SiPMT (which have higher efficiency than PMT), together with spectral calculation and calibration microspheres, it is expected to standardize data between different instruments in the future. Flow cytometry standardization can greatly reduce communication costs, greatly facilitate the popularization of individual solutions, and greatly facilitate the expansion of flow cytometry technology.

Source: Challenbio (a leading Chinese Flow Cytometer Manufacturer)

Offers flow cytometers with 1,2,3,4 lasers up to 14 colors.

Challenbio Spectral Flow Cytometer will be launched in November 2024