To use sound waves to control the movement of cells

Applied Biosystems, part of LifeTechnologies has entered into the flow cytometry instrumentation market with the Attune Acoustic Focusing Cytometer, a first cytometry system designed to use sound waves to control the movement of cells.

Flow cytometry allows scientists to count and examine cells by passing them through a laser-based detection device. Thousands of cells per second may be counted, allowing characterisation of entire populations of cells. Cellular biologists engage in flow cytometry for a rapidly growing range of applications, including the study of proteins expressed by cells (immunophenotyping), quantifying the amount of DNA in cells, cell counting, among others.

Attune enables scientists to gather statistical data on a large number of heterogeneous cells to study parameters within a cell population, including size, complexity, phenotype and health. Attune’s proprietary technology allows scientists to achieve enhanced sensitivity, saves time by increasing throughput, and can be used with small sample sizes.

In addition, it offers these enhanced capabilities with a reduced footprint due to the compact Acoustic technology and smaller volume of consumables required to perform an experiment. These capabilities are expected to enable scientific applications not previously possible on traditional cytometry systems, ranging from sample preparation to bead-based analyses.

Nicolas Barthelemy, president of cell systems at Life Technologies, said: “The Attune technology will accelerate research workflows by reducing the time of some experiments by an order of magnitude with greatly increased sensitivity.

“The introduction of this instrument explains Life Technologies use of expertise in both world-class instrumentation and cell biology to create a solution for life science researchers. This instrument is ideally suited for cell signaling and rare event applications where sensitivity is critical and is a great addition to any cellular analysis laboratory.”