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FluoroFinder News & Updates  

From flow cytometry research and experimental design trends to FluoroFinder tool updates and industry applications, we explore it all in our blog.  

Fluorophores for Super-Resolution Microscopy

Fluorophores for Super-Resolution Microscopy

The selection of method and fluorophores for super-resolution microscopy depends on several considerations.    Fluorescence microscopy is one of the most widely used imaging modalities for scientific research owing to its capacity for multiplexed detection and its...

Cell Sorting in Stem Cell Research

Cell Sorting in Stem Cell Research

Stem cells offer vast potential for new medical treatments   With the unique abilities to self-renew and rebuild functional tissues, stem cells have long been of interest to researchers as potential tools for regenerative medicine. 2006 saw a major turning point...

Spatial-Omics

Spatial-Omics

Multimodal spatial profiling at a single-cell level promises to transform scientific research   Single-cell analysis techniques such as fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and single-cell DNA and RNA sequencing have broadened researchers’ understanding of...

Spillover vs Complexity Index

Spillover vs Complexity Index

What is Spectral Spillover? In flow cytometry, spectral spillover occurs when the emission of one fluorophore overlaps the optimal detection channel of a different fluorophore. Spillover is a concern in flow cytometry, as it can make fluorescent signatures difficult...

Challenges with Secondary Detection

Challenges with Secondary Detection

Selecting the right secondary antibodies, and optimizing them for use, is essential for reliable immunoassay data.   When developing an immunoassay, researchers typically pay close attention to primary antibodies, carefully scrutinizing the product datasheets for...

Validation of Antibodies for Flow Cytometry

Validation of Antibodies for Flow Cytometry

Application-specific validation is critical for reproducible results   Antibodies are essential tools for a broad range of research techniques. However, for data to be both accurate and reproducible, antibodies should be thoroughly validated for each of the...

Dyes for Cell Cycle and Apoptosis Analysis

Dyes for Cell Cycle and Apoptosis Analysis

Aberrant cell proliferation and cell death underlie a multitude of disease states Normal tissue homeostasis depends on a critical balance between cell proliferation and cell death. The cell cycle regulates the former, while the latter occurs via controlled...

Intravital Microscopy – Explained

Intravital Microscopy – Explained

Intravital microscopy has vast potential to reveal hidden cellular mechanisms   Intravital microscopy (IVM) is a term used to describe the direct visualization of cells and tissues within a living organism. It was first reported in the 17th century, shortly after...

Mass Cytometry – Explained

Mass Cytometry – Explained

The use of mass cytometry is growing and includes its adoption for clinical applications Mass cytometry is a variation of flow cytometry that uses antibodies labeled with metal tags rather than fluorophores. Also known as CyTOF® flow cytometry, in deference to...

Choosing the Right Fluorescent Immunoassay for Your Research

Choosing the Right Fluorescent Immunoassay for Your Research

Fluorescent immunoassays meet different experimental needs   When immunoassays such as western blot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were first reported, they typically produced either a radiometric or chromogenic signal. However, many common...

Staining Strategies for Intracellular Flow Cytometry

Staining Strategies for Intracellular Flow Cytometry

By measuring intracellular proteins with flow cytometry, researchers can better understand cell signaling and functional responses in conditions of health and disease   Flow cytometry is widely used for identifying different cell types based on the expression of...

Guide To Selecting Fluorophores for ICC and IHC

Guide To Selecting Fluorophores for ICC and IHC

Choosing the right fluorophores for microscopy-based research is critical for accurate results Using fluorescent reagents for microscopy-based research offers several advantages. Not only does fluorescent detection enable multiplexing, which can be especially useful...

Flow Cytometry Troubleshooting Guide

Flow Cytometry Troubleshooting Guide

Common problems can often be addressed by optimizing experimental design   Flow cytometry is a technique for analyzing individual cells in suspension. It works by using a stream of fluid to direct the cells in single file past an interrogation point, where one or...

Viability Dye Selection Guide

Viability Dye Selection Guide

Viability dyes are critical controls for proper flow analysis. The presence of dead cells can result in unwanted autofluorescence, cell aggregation, non-specific antibody binding, and a compromised capacity for RNA/DNA to proliferate in downstream applications. These...

Tips to Optimize Your Fluorescent Western Blot Protocol

Tips to Optimize Your Fluorescent Western Blot Protocol

Fluorescent western blot detection can offer many advantages provided protocols are carefully optimized   While it was once common for researchers to use enzyme-labeled antibodies and chemiluminescent substrates to develop western blots to film, there has been a...

Panel Design for Spectral Flow Cytometry

Panel Design for Spectral Flow Cytometry

Spectral cytometry offers increased flexibility for fluorophore selection but researchers should still apply best practices for panel design.   It has been almost 20 years since spectral cytometry was first described by the Robinson group at Purdue University...

Antigen Density for Flow Cytometry

Antigen Density for Flow Cytometry

  Understanding the biological density of proteins or antigens expressed by each individual cell is an imperative component of all cell-based analytical methods. The comparative change in protein expression, also called antigen density, is indicative of the...

Tips to Minimize Autofluorescence

Tips to Minimize Autofluorescence

Reducing autofluorescence is critical in fluorescence-based research   Techniques such as fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, and western blotting often rely on the use of fluorophore-labeled antibodies. The main reason for this is that fluorescence-based...

Compensation in Flow Cytometry

Compensation in Flow Cytometry

Fluorescent cellular analytical technologies allow us to “see” beyond what was historically possible with histological stains or morphological scatter profiles. In the early days, microscopy employed excitation sources like arc lamps, isolating specific wavelengths of...

Tips for Fluorophore Selection

Tips for Fluorophore Selection

Choosing the right fluorophores is critical for reliable results   Fluorescent detection offers significant advantages, including multiplexing capability, superior sensitivity, and a broader dynamic linear range compared to  other detection methods. However, the...

Direct vs Indirect Detection in Microscopy

Direct vs Indirect Detection in Microscopy

Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of different immunodetection strategies is important to achieve accurate results.   Microscopy-based techniques such as immunocytochemistry (ICC) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) often use fluorophore or enzyme-labeled...

Stain Index for Flow Cytometry – Explained

Stain Index for Flow Cytometry – Explained

When designing a flow cytometry experiment, it is important to account for the relative brightness of each fluorescent label on your specific instrument.  Ideally, brighter fluorophores should be assigned to weakly expressed markers, while dimmer fluorophores should...

Confocal vs Super-Resolution Microscopy

Confocal vs Super-Resolution Microscopy

Advanced microscopy techniques enable deeper imaging   Advanced microscopy platforms are becoming more widespread for the depth of information they provide. Among these newer modalities, confocal microscopy has risen in popularity for imaging thick...

5 Recipes for Flow Cytometry Buffers

5 Recipes for Flow Cytometry Buffers

Whether preformulated or made in-house, buffers are integral to flow cytometry success   Flow cytometry allows researchers to characterize individual cells using fluorophore-labeled antibodies for detecting targets of interest. Sample preparation, antibody...

Computational Microscopy

Computational Microscopy

Non-conventional optics and advanced algorithms are extending the capabilities of classic microscopy.   For centuries, researchers have tried to improve the resolution and sensitivity of optical microscopy. Over time, advances in fluorescence imaging modalities...

Take Control of Your Flow Cytometry Assay

Take Control of Your Flow Cytometry Assay

Flow cytometry controls must address multiple sources of variation   Flow cytometry requires more controls than other immunoassay techniques because it accounts for a greater number of potential sources of variation. In addition to experimental controls that...

Tandem Dyes

Tandem Dyes

The commercial availability of antibody-linked fluorescent dyes has expanded rapidly over the past decade. Where researchers were once limited to a handful of common dyes (FITC, PE, APC, PerCP, etc.), they can now choose from an extensive list of fluorescent dye lines...

Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching

Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching

Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching is a technique for characterizing the mobility of cellular molecules   Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), also known as fluorescence redistribution after photobleaching, is a microscopy-based technique...

Optimizing Your Immunophenotyping Assay

Optimizing Your Immunophenotyping Assay

Antibody conjugate panels must be designed with care to ensure accurate results Immunophenotyping is a flow cytometry-based technique which uses fluorophore-labeled antibodies for identifying different cell types within a heterogeneous population. While some cell...

Advances in Microscopy

Advances in Microscopy

Microscopy is comprised of many innovative technologies and remains at the forefront of scientific research.   Since the invention of the microscope in the late 16th century, there has been a continual push to produce instruments with higher resolution, faster...

Guide to Fixation and Permeabilization

Guide to Fixation and Permeabilization

Fixation and permeabilization are key protocol steps for several core immunoassay techniques Immunoassay techniques such as flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry (ICC), and immunohistochemistry (IHC) often require that samples be fixed and/or permeabilized prior to...

Roundup of Spectral Flow Cytometers

Roundup of Spectral Flow Cytometers

The use of spectral flow cytometry is increasing due to the many benefits it affords. Spectral flow cytometry is a relatively new technology that was developed to push the boundaries of traditional flow cytometry. First described in 2004 by researchers at Purdue...

Near-Infrared Fluorophores For Fluorescence Imaging

Near-Infrared Fluorophores For Fluorescence Imaging

Near-infrared fluorophores offer several advantages for imaging applications. A major advantage of fluorescent detection is that it enables multiple antibodies to be combined in the same experiment. Using techniques such as immunocytochemistry (ICC) and...

Fantastic Beasts and How To Image Them

Fantastic Beasts and How To Image Them

Fluorescence microscopy is seeing increased utility for imaging organisms While fluorescence microscopy has long been employed for imaging plated mammalian cells, its use for visualizing organisms is flourishing. In recent years, winning images in Nikon’s annual Small...

Preparing a Single-Cell Suspension for Flow Cytometry

Preparing a Single-Cell Suspension for Flow Cytometry

High viabilities, well-preserved antigens, and minimal clumping underpin flow cytometry success Unlike bulk population analysis techniques such as ELISA and Western blot, flow cytometry provides information about individual cells. Although microscopy does this as...

OMIPs

OMIPs

What are OMIPs?  Optimized multicolor immunofluorescence panels, commonly known as OMIPs, are highly validated sets of antibodies and reagents that are published, peer-reviewed, and compiled to serve as a resource to the scientific community. OMIP publications often...

Advances in Western Blot Technologies

Advances in Western Blot Technologies

New approaches to Western blotting techniques overcome performance limitations For over 40 years, researchers have used Western blot for protein identification. Not only does Western Blot provide confirmation that a target of interest is present in a sample, this...

Expansion Microscopy

Expansion Microscopy

Expansion Microscopy physically expands biological specimens enabling higher resolution imaging   First described in 2015, expansion microscopy is an imaging technique that improves on the resolution of conventional light microscopy by physically expanding the...

Flow Cytometry in Stem Cell Research and Therapy

Flow Cytometry in Stem Cell Research and Therapy

Identifying distinct stem cell types and monitoring their differentiation is essential for developing novel therapies   Stem cell research originated in the 1950s when it was discovered that mice which had received a lethal dose of radiation could recover...