Optimizing Flow Cytometry: Advantages of Custom Cocktails and Conjugates

In the field of biological research, flow cytometry plays a crucial role in understanding cellular characteristics and functions. 

As the complexity of research questions continues to evolve, expanding the number of reagents in cocktails becomes a pivotal strategy to meet the diverse and intricate demands of flow cytometry. This article delves into the advantages of custom cocktails and fluorophore conjugates to flow cytometry laboratories, highlighting their potential to advance scientific discovery.

Improvements and efficiency

Custom cocktails have revolutionized the efficiency of flow cytometry experiments, and availability of ready-to-use custom cocktails can help to significantly reduce the time spent in tailoring reagent formulations to align with the specific requirements of each experiment. 

This customization streamlines reagent handling and sample preparation workflow, eliminates redundant steps (e.g., daily cocktail preparation), and minimizes manual errors—all of which results in significant improvements in efficiency and reliability of end results. This optimization not only helps to accelerate the pace of scientific inquiry, but also assists with enhancing the efficiency of laboratory operations.

Mitigating staff shortages

Staff shortages pose significant challenges to laboratory productivity and throughput. Custom cocktails offer an alternative. 

By simplifying experimental procedures, automating protocols, and reducing the reliance on manual intervention, custom cocktails can help to empower laboratories to maintain high levels of productivity despite personnel limitations. 

This resilience promotes the adaptability of scientific progress, helping to mitigate the impact of staffing fluctuations or resource constraints on research continuity. 

Precision through customer collaboration

The customization of cocktails thrives on close engagement with customers. Through collaborative relationships, manufacturers gain insights to support researchers’ unique experimental requirements.

This cooperation enables the development of bespoke solutions tailored to specific scientific objectives. Customer input on product requirements, sample characteristics, experimental needs, and desired outcomes guides manufacturers in crafting custom cocktails that prioritize performance and reliability, supporting the advancement of scientific discovery.

Advantages of different reagent formats

Labs have two options with reagent formats: liquid cocktails and stabilized (dry-down or lyophilized) cocktails.

Liquid cocktails

Liquid cocktails can facilitate integration into existing automation, making them convenient for experiments requiring rapid processing or frequent use. Additionally, liquid cocktails may provide flexibility in customizing reagent compositions and concentrations, potentially supporting researchers in meeting their specific experimental needs. 

Stabilized cocktails

These offer a blend of stability and performance, designed to support experiments with intermittent use or limited refrigeration access. Stabilized cocktails have demonstrated longer shelf life: typically up to two years, but they may last longer. Their desiccated format supports prolonged shelf life and storage stability, potentially reducing the frequency of reagent validation by researchers. 

Together, these custom cocktail options increase collaboration between researchers across the globe for multicenter studies with a single lot of reagents supporting data comparison across laboratories.

Streamlining flow cytometry

Custom cocktails and tailored reagent formats can streamline flow cytometry experiments, potentially leading to improved turnaround time, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and staff resource allocation. 

Through customization and close collaboration with customers, laboratories can experience the potential of flow cytometry as a transformative research tool, which can help to drive innovation and discovery.