Hi Ellen, We own an XL and Elite ESP from Coulter and two Caliburs and a Vantage/DIVA from BD. The only important difference between the XL and the Calibur is that the XL runs with one laser and the Calibur with two. However, there is practically no difference in the sensitivity between the two analyzer machines (fluorescence channel 1 - 3). Fluorescence channel 4 depends on the availability of antibodies coupled to APC or PECy5. The other difference is: BD uses an Apple platform and Coulter uses a PC platform. However, this is only a mater of taste whether you prefer an Apple over a PC or vice versa. Now to your next question: What about service and sales personnel? Again, it is going to be tough for you. The representatives from both companies are excellent in the Boston area. For example: Even at very unpleasant times (weekend, morning of the 4th of July, ...) the service from Coulter came in to fix machines. Otherwise, we would have lost very important data in an ongoing rhesus monkey animal study. The same is true for BD: The service is trying to do anything to get your machines fixed as soon as possible. If you need custom applications, the service representatives from BD are very help. I can't speak for other areas in the USA. However, in the Boston area you are in very good hands with both companies using either the XL or the Calibur. Therefore, a more important question is what are the applications you wish to do? 1 - 4 colors, or do you wish to extend to do more than 4 colors? How fast do you want to acquire you data? There are new analyzers (high speed analyzers) on the horizon, which will go far beyond 4 colors and an acquisition speed of 1000/sec. Cytomation will come out with the CyAn. As I learned recently, you can get a digital version of the LSR from BD. And, I am almost sure that Coulter has something similar in the pipeline. Finally, it may come down to a very important issue: Finances. This, however, will be a matter of your negotiations skills. Joern E. Schmitz, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School Division of Viral Pathogenesis Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Research East 213D P.O. Box 15732 Boston, MA 02215 617-667-5206 617-667-8210 fax http://research.bidmc.harvard.edu/v_path -----Original Message----- From: Ellen.Freed@astrazeneca.com [mailto:Ellen.Freed@astrazeneca.com] Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 4:10 PM To: cyto-inbox Subject: BD vs. Coulter: quality and precision. Hi Everyone Does anyone have an idea about how BD FacsCaliber and Coulter EPICS XL compare for overall precision, and for quality of optics. I understand they work differently, but don't completely understand the differences. I'm told that Coulter is digital and BD is not. What difference does this make? Also, we've heard that BD has great support people - but what about Coulter support in the Boston area. Does anyone have experience with that. Thanks in advance for any help you can give. Ellen Freed Ellen Freed Scientist AstraZeneca R&D Boston
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