Cell Biology

Counting is something we are all familiar with but it’s not always as simple as one, two, three. Measuring the concentration of cells in suspension is a common but surprisingly complex task in cell biology that is easy to get wrong. This article explores ten factors that can influence cell counting, gives advice on how to improve accuracy, and dispels some commonly held myths.

The annual international Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) conference is the highlight of the year for scientists in academia, industry, and government focused on leveraging the power of automation to achieve scientific breakthroughs. Here are some highlights of this year’s conference and how Bio-Rad contributed to it.

Manufacturing and high-throughput screening may seem to have very little in common, but they are related at a fundamental level. Both seek to transform a raw material into a finished product, and both struggle with constraints, or bottlenecks, that reduce efficiency. How can we apply the revolutionary 20th century management principles of continuous improvement to 21st century flow cytometry?

Despite the pivotal role of the 488 nm (blue) laser in the rise in popularity of flow cytometry, it experienced somewhat of a fall from grace following the shift to higher usage of the 561 nm (yellow) laser. However, with the advancement of flow cytometry leading to the use of more complex multicolor panels and ever-increasing fluorophore numbers per experiment, the blue laser is starting to make a comeback. Discover how StarBright Blue Dyes can help you make the most out of your 488 nm laser.

In recent years, biologics — drugs derived from living culture systems — have become increasingly significant in the fight against a plethora of conditions. Unfortunately, the efficiency of these drugs comes at a cost. A daily dose of a biologic drug costs, on average, 22 times more than conventional small-molecule drugs. Therefore, biosimilars are developed to make them more accessible. Lung cancer is an example where the development of biosimilars could increase treatment options available for patients.

Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is an effective treatment strategy for multiple myeloma (MM) but isolating enough hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) for transplantation can be challenging. The selective CXCR4 inhibitor motixafortide has been shown to be a safe and efficacious HSPC mobilization agent in a phase 2 trial when paired with G-CSF. Crees et al. (2023) report the results of the phase 3 trial, in which they used the ZE5 Cell Analyzer to explore motixafortide’s mobilizing effects.

Protein expression analysis is essential in cell biology research, as it provides valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms that underlie cellular functions. Traditional methods for protein analysis, such as western blotting and ELISA, are useful for studying protein expression in cell lysates. However, these methods require labor-intensive sample preparation and do not provide information on the spatial distribution of proteins within intact cells. In-Cell Western is a powerful technique that enables quantitative and qualitative in situ protein expression analysis.

With the advancement of technology, flow cytometers are now able to detect a much greater range of fluorescent dyes, facilitating the analysis of more extensive and complex multicolor immunophenotyping assays. But this has also introduced more pitfalls to navigate during the design of these experiments. Find out how StarBright Dyes can help circumvent many of these issues, enabling consistent and reliable results.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells represent the next generation of therapeutic interventions and are a major advancement in personalized disease treatment. CAR T-cell therapies utilize a patient’s own T cells to recognize and destroy cancer cells or other disease-causing cells. Find out how the ZE5 Cell Analyzer has helped overcome some of the challenges associated with development of these powerful new therapies.

Understanding how T cells respond to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is critical in developing long-term therapeutic approaches, as well as helping inform strategies for future pandemics. Learn how one team at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in San Diego, California, has been using novel T-cell activation assays to understand how our immune system responds to SARS-CoV-2.