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Cytomation was founded in 1988 to provide upgrade systems and software for existing flow cytometers whose performance was limited by obsolete signal acquisition electronics and computers. These products evolved to challenge the performance of the latest instruments and in 1994, Cytomation completed the product line by the development of the MoFlo flow bench and optical system.
Cytomation's philosophy is to provide systems with the maximum performance possible using state-of-the-art electronics and computing. The CICERO product line is also designed to allow flow instruments built by several different manufacturers to run on common IBM compatible computer platforms with minimal differences in the standard operating procedures for each cytometer.
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The MoFlo is a top of the line cytometer that combines the ultimate performance of a research sorter, with the ease of use of more limited systems. The MoFlo line consists of a series of models, each upgradeable to 3 laser, 12 parameter, 25,000 cell/sec performance.
The modular flow cytometer systems have been designed to eliminate performance
variability due to interdependent component adjustments. Independents optical paths
allow simple adjustments for each beam. Maximum sort rates in excess of
25,000 cells per second are achieved by a proprietary jet in air nozzle that
minimizes divergence from laminar flow conditions.
The fluidics system is designed to operate to 100 psi. Transport tubing is
terminated in Swage-type connectors to enable rapid dismantling for
sterilization or mechanical cleaning. Sample injection is designed to
eliminate contamination. The sample injector is equipped with a 3-port inlet
to facilitate kinetics experiments.
Droplet break-off is controlled by an external clock oscillator. Drop Drive
Frequencies as high as 100 kHz may be generated. Drop delay can be set at 2 to
99 drops with adjustments of 1/16 of a drop interval. Droplet charge can be
accurately set from 1 to +/- 200V. Drop drive phase can be adjusted to 1/16 of
a drop resolution to synchronize stream charge and droplet break off. Charge
deflection plates are shielded for stability and safety.
Optical design includes "pinhole" filtering, which provides maximum separation of signals generated by multiple lasers. The optical path has also been designed to incorporate precise orthogonal intercepts to
the filter faces to reduce scatter. Laser line filters are utilized to
enable the separation of closely adjacent emitted wavelengths.
MoFlo's electronics are based upon a patented Parallel Pulse Processing
algorithm that enables event recognition without limitation by the dwell-time
of cells passing through a multiple laser array. The result is a sort rate
capacity of 25,000 cells per second.
The system incorporates a first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer connected via a high
speed (600 kbytes per sec) data bus to an external computer. The data bus is
in the public domain to allow custom designed interface cards for on-line data
monitoring and feedback.
Each PMT is served by a high speed ADC producing a 6 usecond deadtime in both
single and multiple beam modes. Signal resolution is 4096 channels for
univariate histograms and 128 x 128 bivariate histograms. Ten analog signals
can be acquired.
Click here for more information about MoFlo sort capability
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CICERO is an upgrade package that can elevate performance levels of most common flow cytometers to 1996 standards, at a fraction of the cost of a new cytometer. It includes the CyCLOPS software running on an
Pentium® based computer. The package includes a customized instrument interface
designed to accommodate most of the flow cytometers in common use.
CICERO electronics utilize 16 bit ADCs and run with a deadtime of less than 15
useconds. Efficient sort control elevates many of the older instrument's sort
speeds to rates limited by the instrument's fluidics. Sort speeds are not
reduced by the use of non-rectangular gating.
CICERO's high speed data acquisition, in excess of 15,000 events per second, is
most advantageous in the analysis mode by dramatically reducing data loss when
studying rare event phenomena.
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CyCLOPS is a complete flow cytometry software package. It can be configured
for on-line acquisition, sort control and analysis, or, on-line acquisition and
analysis only, or, off-line analysis. CyCLOPS supports both the CICERO and
MoFlo electronics systems.
CyCLOPS is written in "C" and is designed to exploit the speed available on 486 and Pentium PC's, to enable essentially "instant"
screen responses and on-line software compensation. The programs run under a
"pull down" menu to minimize paging. Operating set-ups are stored as
"protocols." Frequently repeated commands are linked by custom macro strings
for recall at a single keystroke. CyCLOPS acquires files into histogram and/or
listmode directories. The program includes routines for linear to log data
conversion.
Display capability includes 15 "objects" on a single screen. These can include
eight movable, sizeable histograms, instrument setting status, and a gating
diagram. The screen displays can include isometrics, contours, and
comprehensive histogram labelling. Analysis routines include subtraction,
overlays, kinetics, plotting time versus ratio, percent positive and mean.
Color gating is an elegant feature of the system.
CyCLOPS provides convenient export of files in formats compatible with popular
spread-sheets, word processors and graphics packages. High quality printing is
provided through support of the latest versions of HP LaserJetTM
printers. A special feature of CyCLOPS is the provision of network compatible
data transfer capability.
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