Every year, the number of fluorescent dyes available for scientific research continues to grow, and 2025 has been no exception. Novel fluorochromes are expanding the limits of both traditional and spectral flow cytometry, as well as advancing spatial biology applications. Here, we look at some of the very latest dyes, including their key features, benefits, and applications.
BD Biosciences Introduced New Fluorochromes for Flow Cytometry
In 2025, BD Biosciences launched five new fluorochromes for flow cytometry—RY743, RY655, RR688, RB824 and RV828—expanding the family of BD Horizon RealYellow™ and RealBlue™ Reagents to a total of 13 dyes, while also introducing the first RealRed™ and RealViolet™ Dyes.
“Leading the charge into new frontiers, BD proudly unveiled its first-ever dyes with peak emission beyond 820 nm—RealBlue™ 824 and RealViolet™ 828—marking a bold leap into the near-infrared spectrum,” says Anne Gable, Ph.D., Senior Global Marketing Manager. “This launch signals BD’s unwavering commitment to innovation and its drive to push the boundaries of usable spectral space for easier panel design and quality resolution.” Additional dyes with peak emission beyond 820 nm are already in development, further increasing the possibilities for spectral flow cytometry.
“The RealYellow™, RealBlue™, RealRed™ and RealViolet™ Reagents are engineered to deliver reduced spillover and thus optimize resolution when used with other fluorochromes, helping to expand experiments on both conventional and spectral flow cytometers,” comments Gable. “This family of dyes extends the spectral range of fluorochromes for the violet, blue, yellow-green and red lasers, with maximum emission wavelengths ranging from ~540 nm to the near-infrared range of ~830 nm. They are conjugated to a broad range of specificities with varying brightness levels to resolve a wide variety of markers.”
Bio-Rad Extended the StarBright™ Dyes Product Family
Bio-Rad’s range of StarBright™ Dyes has continued to grow, and currently stands at 34 different dyes following the launch of StarBright UltraViolet 700 in August and StarBright UltraViolet 540 in October. These latest dyes, designed specifically for spectral flow cytometry, have completely unique emission profiles and so can be added to any new or existing panel.
“Advantages of StarBright Dyes are that they are extremely bright, with narrow excitation and emission characteristics, and the flexibility to work in all buffers,” explains Mike Blundell, Ph.D., Product Manager. “Additionally, StarBright Dyes are compatible with all fluorescently-labeled antibodies and can be added to premixed cocktails without the need for experimental changes.”
Bio-Rad has conjugated StarBright Dyes to highly cited immunology antibodies against multiple markers. Currently, StarBright Red, StarBright Yellow, and StarBright Blue each have 34 markers, while the original StarBright Violet and StarBright Ultraviolet dyes have 63. The two new spectral dyes are on 46 markers, 13 of which were introduced this year, giving researchers even greater choice when designing spectral flow cytometry panels.
For researchers seeking a StarBright Dye conjugate that is not available as an off-the-shelf product, Bio-Rad now offers TrailBlazer™ Tag and StarBright™ Dye Label Kits to enable in-house antibody labeling. These products combine the innovative SpyTag and SpyCatcher technology with the various StarBright Dyes to allow for generating stable high-quality conjugated antibodies.
BioLegend Expanded its Range of Spark PLUS™ Dyes and Launched StarBright™ Dye Conjugates
This year, BioLegend expanded its range of Spark PLUS™ Dyes through the introduction of Spark PLUS V475™ and Spark PLUS B574™. These are excited by the 405 nm violet laser and the 488 nm blue laser, respectively, and exhibit unique spectral profiles that allow for clear unmixing on spectral instruments. “Spark PLUS Dyes maintain the benefits of their Spark Dye counterparts, such as narrow emission profiles, stability, and buffer compatibility,” reports Ken Lau, Ph.D., Senior Product Marketing Manager. “In addition, Spark PLUS dyes can offer enhanced brightness, helping to maximize signal and boost performance.” Further Spark PLUS Dyes will be available in 2026.
2025 also saw BioLegend develop new StarBright™ Dye Conjugates (powered by Bio-Rad) for increased flexibility when performing multicolor flow cytometry. “Our first ~100 conjugates, which are dedicated to the UV laser, were generated by pairing StarBright™ UltraViolet 575, 740, and 795 with our extensive antibody clone library,” says Lau. “We plan to offer even more StarBright conjugates in the upcoming year, and our expert field team is ready to help scientists build the ideal StarBright panel to fit their research needs.”
Biotium Developed ActinBrite™ HighAffinity Phalloidin Conjugates and TyraMax™ Amplification Dyes
Biotium’s new ActinBrite™ High Affinity Phalloidin Conjugates for visualizing the cytoskeleton (through phalloidin binding to F-actin) are engineered to provide more durable staining than traditional phalloidin conjugates, which typically lose signal within a week. They are available in 7 colors, from green to near-infrared, and can serve as direct replacements for any phalloidin conjugate. “With ActinBrite™, our aim was to offer more flexibility for researchers by allowing slides to be imaged up to one month after staining with minimal loss of signal” says Lori Roberts, Ph.D., Director of Bioscience.
Biotium has also launched TyraMax™ Amplification Dyes, which are specifically for use with tyramide signal amplification (TSA) protocols in spatial biology applications including fluorescent immunocytochemistry, immunohistochemistry, and in situ hybridization. “We designed these new amplification dyes to perform with improved brightness, photostability, and working-solution stability compared to other TSA dyes” notes Roberts. The dyes are available in 12 colors, with unique options from blue to near-infrared, the largest selection of tyramide dyes available. Kits for 3-plex and 5-plex staining with DAPI are offered, as well as a spectral sampler kit containing trial sizes of all 12 dyes for researchers to test. Read the press release here.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Introduced New Brilliant Dyes and NovaFluor™ Dyes
2025 saw Thermo Fisher Scientific continue to expand its portfolio of high-performance fluorescent dyes for flow cytometry with the introduction of several new Brilliant Ultra Violet™ (BUV), Brilliant Violet™ (BV), and NovaFluor™ dyes, as well as dye-conjugated antibodies. “Our Brilliant Ultra Violet and Brilliant Violet catalog includes an ever-growing list of BUV395, BUV496, BUV563, BUV615, BUV661, BUV737, BUV805, BV421, BV480, BV605, BV650, BV711, and BV786 antibody conjugates,” reports Mohammad Khan, Ph.D., Global Market Development Manager.
“Together, these reagents provide comprehensive spectral coverage for UV and Violet channels. However, to ensure complete utilization of these spectral regions, we additionally launched a number of new NovaFluor™ dyes, including NovaFluor™ UV 765, NovaFluor Violet™ 690, NovaFluor Violet™ 745, and NovaFluor Violet™ 800. Like all NovaFluor dyes, these products are uniquely engineered to minimize cross-laser excitation, resulting in significantly reduced spillover. This minimizes the need for compensation and decreases spreading error, allowing for increased resolution and the inclusion of additional markers within complex multicolor panels without major challenges.”
Other NovaFluor dyes introduced this year include NovaFluor™ Blue 745 and NovaFluor™ Red 800, which are excited by the 488 nm blue laser and the red (633–640 nm) laser, respectively. Importantly, each occupies a spectral space not currently accessed by other Invitrogen™ spectral dyes.
“NovaFluor Blue 745 is ideal for pairing with moderately to highly expressed antigens and benefits from exceptional fluorescence stability,” says Khan. “Stained samples retain their fluorescence intensity and spectral profile even when stored at 4°C, ensuring consistent performance in multicolor panels. NovaFluor Red 800 enables the design of larger, more complex panels with minimal loss of resolution, particularly when used with low to moderately expressed antigens. While slightly less photostable than other NovaFluor dyes, NovaFluor Red 800 remains at least as stable as traditional protein tandem fluorophores, ensuring reliable fluorescence performance during acquisition.”
Supporting Your Research
Whether you’re using old or new dyes, FluoroFinder is here to help simplify the design of your fluorescence-based experiment! Use our Antibody Search function to find antibodies that are validated for your chosen application, then check the optical properties and spectral profiles of more than a thousand fluorochromes in our Fluorescent Dye Database. To identify dyes that are compatible with your instrument’s specific laser and filter configurations, use our Spectra Viewer.
