Dear Andreas,
It is very difficult to respond to a query such as this without
sounding like your are either trying to sell a product or are unhappy
about something. What is my experience? We have 3 BDIS sorters at TSRI
(2 Vantage SE's and a FACStar Plus), and they all work great! Our
sorters run at a range of throughputs from hundred of events / second to
over 40,000 events / second depending on the setup and experimental
conditions at hand. I think a lot of flow people will remain silent on
this one, not because their work is below par, but rather because they
would rather spend their time doing something else. I for one take
offense at the notion recently posted that any failure to respond to a
query about what sorter might be "best" means that we have a below par
facility, or don't like our instruments.
A craftsman is known by his work, not by the tools he employs. There are
outstanding groups that use BDIS, MoFlo, and Coulter systems.
Personally, I'd like one of each.
I suspect the knowledge and skills of the operator and investigator
have far more to do with the quality of the results than the brand of
cytometer. I have seen data generated on home-made sorters that looks
great, and data from all popular commercial instruments that looks
terrible. In your area of the world you need to pay careful attention to
how well the system may be supported, and what kind of help you can
expect when things go wrong. Hopefully, Cytomation, BDIS, and
Beckman-Coulter can all provide you with a realistic notion of what kind
of on-site support you can expect, and what the cost would be. Ignore
the hype and get what's best for your facility. You shouldn't get a
Vantage just because we have one, or a MoFlo just because someone else
says it is faster and better. Good luck, and don't touch the charging
plates with the high-voltage on.
Joe
Andreas Simm wrote:
> Hello everybody,
> I know that this question appears nearly all three month,
> but I now have to decide which high speed sorter we
> should buy. As we will have only one apparatus for both,
> analysis and sorting, the decision (may be) will not be the
> same as if one consider to buy a flow cytometer for
> sorting purposes only.
>
> And as far as I know, almost only MoFlo user answered
> to the last queries.
> So my questions:
> What is the experience with the Altra (Coulter)? I did
> not hear from any experience in this list.
> What is the experience with the FACS-Vantage?
> >From the last queries, the MoFlo tends to be the best
> sorter (but only users of the MoFlo answered!). What's the
> experience with it for analysis purposes only. Is it easy to handle?
> Is anybody in the flow community, who can really
> compare these sorters?
>
> Thanks for every statement in advance!
>
> Andreas
>
> My address:
>
> PD Dr. Andreas Simm
> Institut fuer Klinische Biochemie und Pathobiochemie
> Versbacher Str. 5
> D-97078 Wuerzburg
> Germany
>
> Tel.: +49 931-201-3144
> FAX.: +49 931-201-3153
> E-mail: simm@klin-biochem.uni-wuerzburg.de
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