Mass Cytometry

In Mass cytometry we utilizes heavy metals, from the Lanthanide family, attached to specific antibodies that can be resolved and quantified using a high resolution mass spectrometry. And thus background signal due to auto-fluorescence and limitations due to spectral overlap are eliminated. The mass cytometer uses high-temperature plasma to atomize and release the metal ions from the individual cells. These ions, which now include the metal labels, then get fed into a mass spectrometer to measure the mass and abundance of each metal, and thus each matched protein. Currently we can measure up to about 45 parameters at the single cell level with the potential of up to 100 parameters.

The mass cytometry technology provides deep measurement across a broad array of cell types in a single tube. As a discovery tool, mass cytometry delivers a system level perspective that lower-dimensional panels cannot match. The CyTOF simultaneously quantifies protein expression on and within cells. These attributes provide researchers with an unparalleled ability to generate high resolution phenotypic and functional profiles of cells from normal and diseased states.

We have about 400 calibrated metal-conjugated antibodies, anti mouse and human available for you to use. To see available antibodies please contact us. In addition, a full list of antibodies, anti human and mouse can be found on Fluidigm site.

CyTOF is operated using CyTOF acquisition software and generates FCS or TXT format files. Data analysis in done using third party software, such as Cytobank; a cloud-based platform of powerful tools to visualize findings and produce high impact graphics from mass cytometry data, such as SPADE, viSNE, Sunburst and others.

CyTOF is available for all labs to use. For more information please contact Amir Grau.