Hi Fredrik, I have had an Aria in my Lab for just over 9 months now and most of my comments would be favourable. I think that some of the technological changes that BD introduced in the Aria have helped in practical terms with my users experiments. The combination of the early digitisation of the signal, the use of area for fluorescence measurement, the cuvette system, the fibre-optic light collection and the octagon/trigon arrangement of the PMTs have, in many cases, given better signal:noise ratios than we see on our stream in air sorters and this is especially true in the far-red end of the spectrum. Set up is very quick and sorting is very stable; we also like the air-cooled lasers and the (relative) quietness of the machine. We have found that we can sort at comparable speeds to the MoFlo and that purity and recovery and viability are all within acceptable limits. There has been a need amongst operators to maybe think a little more about how the signals are processed, compensated and displayed but this is no bad thing! On the debit side, the software could be a bit better but is constantly being tweaked and data can be exported for subsequent analysis in the software of your choice. The one major problem we have had - and it is a concern although any of the BD boys reading this will be well aware of the troubles I have had - is with nozzles. Aside of the fact that there are only 70 and 100 micron ones available (OK this is also influenced by the flow cell), they do tend to degrade very quickly (at least in our hands). The practical consequence of this is that after a period of time four way sorting becomes impractical because of excessive fanning and (what appears to be) insufficient charging of the outermost streams, so although a new nozzle can be installed, we have to treat them as a disposable item at present which is obviously not ideal. Having said that, BD are aware of this and are in the process of doing something about it. Hope that helps, fell free to contact me if you need any other information. Best wishes, Derek >Hello >My name is Fredrik Wallberg and I work with flow cytometry at the >Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. I would be very grateful to receive comments >and practical concerns about the FACSAria. >Regards >Fredrik Wallberg -- *************************************************************** Derek Davies Voice: (44) 020 7269 3394 FACS Laboratory, FAX: (44) 020 7269 3479 London Research Institute, e_mail: derek.davies@cancer.org.uk Cancer Research UK mobile: 07790 604112 44 Lincolns Inn Fields, London, UK. Web Page: http://science.cancerresearchuk.org/sci/facs/ In tenebris lux ***************************************************************Received on Tue Jun 22 12:18:00 2004
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