Sony announce cell analysis capable of detecting full spectrum fluorescence

Sony has announced the industry's first cell analysis instrument capable of detecting full spectrum fluorescence to facilitate highly accurate analysis.

The corporation recently announced the development of 'Spectral' cell analyser, which is its second flow cytometer cell analysis instrument for the optical analysis of cells. The new technology will be displayed as a prototype at  ISAC (the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry) in Leipzig, Germany.

Sony hopes that this new development will provide a novel method of cell analysis to researchers in advanced research fields such as immunology, oncology, and regenerative medicine. The high-end cell analyzer uses a new ‘spectral’ cytometry method to detect full spectrum fluorescent emissions, which it allows it to perform complex analysis in a simple way.

Flow cytometer provides optical measurements to analyze and sort various kinds of cells based on their size, number, exterior surface, and interior content (such as their structure, function, and biomarkers).

Conventional methods analyze characteristics of cells by staining cells with a reagent, and then detecting the light (fluorescence) emitted from cells when they are hit by a laser beam. Detecting the fluorescence requires optical filters to divide the fluorophores based on the channel, which requires additional use of optical filters, detectors, and fluorophores.

This method is flawed in that multiple fluorophores can overlap in a single channel, which then requires additional spectral compensation or correction work. Consequently, the increase in the number of fluorescent reagents has posed various problems in analysis accuracy, reproducibility, and work efficiency.

This is something Sony looked to correct, using the 'spectral' cell analyser which adopts a new method to measure the full spectrum of fluorescence with a high degree of accuracy. Sony’s uniquely designed prism array, in combination with a newly-developed ‘32-channel photomultiplier tube’ allows the analysis of the spectral emissions of virtually any overlapped fluorophores by dividing them into individual fluorophore emissions.

This approach eliminates the need for spectral compensation required on other systems and expands the total number of fluorophores that can be analyzed simultaneously.

Posted by Neil Clark