Instrument
The conventional method of single cell analysis, flow cytometry, uses fluorescent tags. The resolving power of this method is limited by the overlap of fluorophore emission spectra.
The CyTOF™ instrument is based on atomic mass spectrometry and measures elements rather than fluorescent dyes. Using MAXPAR™ labelling kits, stable isotopic tags are attached to antibodies. Mass spectrometry provides exquisite resolution between detection channels, hence many parameters can be measured without requiring compensation.
There are many (up to 100) available stable isotopes. The CYTOF™ mass spectrometer is able to detect up to 7 orders of magnitude resolution between neighbouring mass channels with dynamic range up to 9 orders of magnitude.
Screen capture of data collected during slurry nebulisation of a KG1A cell suspension labelled with MAXPAR™-tagged antibodies. Sequential spectra are shown on the vertical scale, and the horizontal scale is Time of Flight (TOF).
This project is funded by Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute:
Complementary funding is gratefully acknowledged from:
Bandura DR, Baranov VI, Ornatsky OI, Antonov A, Kinach R, Lou X, Pavlov S, Vorobiev S, Dick JE, Tanner SD.