Cytobuoy: Flow Cytometers for the Environment

Contributors: George B.J. Dubelaar and Peter Gerritzen
E-mail: dubelaar@cytobuoy.com

Affiliation:
CytoBuoy b.v.
Weijland 70 C, 2415 BD Nieuwerbrug, The Netherlands

Web site: www.cytobuoy.com

What is Cytobuoy?

Cytobuoy b.v. builds flow cytometers for particle suspensions in a wide size and concentration range such as found in the environmental samples, especially for (phyto)plankton analysis: the Cytosense for the lab and on shipboard, the Cytobuoy on a moored buoy, and the Cytosub for submerged work.

The digital signal processing provides full pulse shape information for each analyzed particle which improves the classification potential of the data.

These instruments accept particles from <1 to 600 µm in diameter and lenghts of several millimeters at flow rates of up to1 ml/min. This allows autonomous operation without concentration and without the risk of instrument clogging.

- Click here to download the POWERPOINT presentation

- Click here to start the presentation in HTML format (optimized for Microsoft Internet Explorer)

Softwares to analyze the data files measured with a Cytosense flow cytometer:

DATAVIEW (for quick analysis)
The purpose of this program is to inspect Cytosense data files and covert files to data for analysis with CytoWave, WinMDI and spreadsheets such as Microsoft EXCEL.
For more details about this software, click here.

CYTOCLUS (for more in-depth cluster analysis)
The purpose of this software is to establish selection criteria for certain types of phytoplankton particles and perform automatic selection later, based upon those criteria. Cytoclus works with selection sets made interactively by the user. Example selection sets are provided for both data series 2 and 3.
For more details about this software, click here (PDF file).

Important : PC Platform only ; 1024 x 768 screen needed for Dataview and recommended for Cytoclus.

 

Raw data files measured with a Cytosense flow cytometer:

Examples of data files, all measured with a Cytosense instrument, are provided in the Cytobuoy format in the following archives. To download a series just click on the corresponding link and save the archive into the directory of your choice:

Series 1 - Some phytoplankton cultures kindly provided by Dr Rene Groben during a visit at the Alfred Wegener Institute in 2003 (AWI, Bremerhaven, Germany). (Click here to download)

Series 2 - A short series of autonomously hourly measured sea water samples in the night 23/24 april 2003 during a cruise on the North Sea on the R/V Heincke of the AWI. Click here to download the archive. (Click here to download)

Series 3 - A short series of daily measurements of the river Oude Rijn in Nieuwerbrug (March/April 2004) :

- Archive 3 (click here to download)
- Archive 4 (click here to download)
- Archive 5 (click here to download)

Data series 1 and 2 were measured by a 2002 series CytoSense (CytoBuoy b.v., Nieuwerbrug, The Netherlands) benchtop flow cytometer, with a 20 mW 488nm microlaser, measuring forward scatter, sideward scatter, and fluorescence respectively in the following wavelength bands: 518-548, 585-655 and >655 nm. Sample flow rate: 8 µl/s.

Data series 3 was measured by a 2000 series CytoSense (CytoBuoy b.v., Nieuwerbrug, The Netherlands)
benchtop flow cytometer, with a 20 mW 532nm microlaser, measuring forward scatter, sideward scatter, and fluorescence in the following wavelength bands: 549-588, 607-646 and >665 nm. Sample flow rate: 5 µl/s.

 

Note: The applications DATAVIEW and CYTOCLUS are VBwrapped stand-alone demo versions that can be run from the CD and install help files in a temporary folder on your computer (and remove them after use). When opening DataView or CytoClus from the CD these programs start looking for files in the newly made temporary folder. Move upwards in the directory structure where the data files have been uncompressed (using WinZip, Stuffit, etc.).