'White-light' flow cytometry

流式细胞术是一种分析细胞的常用技术，在这种技术中，荧光分子被用来对流经激光的流体中的细胞进行光学标记。当细胞穿过光束时产生的荧光的检测和分析提供了关于细胞类型和功能的信息。这项技术可以极快地分析大量细胞，几分钟内可以分析多达100万个细胞，因此可以用来检测极其罕见的细胞。例如，可以将荧光分子引入血液样本中的细胞，并使用抗体进行改造，使其选择性地附着在任何存在的癌细胞上。然后，流动分析识别和计数这些细胞，提供样本中患病细胞数量的衡量标准。该项目将采用商用流式细胞仪，用多色白光激光取代现有的单色激光。这提供了波长覆盖整个可见光光谱的激光，因此可以用于任何荧光分子。目前，这种选择是有限的，因为每个分子物种都需要特定波长的光才能产生荧光。这种颜色的无限可获得性将允许进行多标记实验，其中可以将大量不同的荧光探针同时引入细胞，从而提供关于细胞内多种相互作用和过程的信息。改装后的细胞仪将与淋巴细胞(免疫系统细胞)一起使用，以更好地了解新生儿的童年免疫及其在怀孕期间的发育。

Flow cytometry is a commonly used technique for analysing cells in which fluorescent molecules are used to optically tag cells that flow in a fluid stream through a laser beam. Detection and analysis of the fluorescence, generated as the cells traverse the beam, provides information on cell type and function. The technique allows extremely rapid analysis of large numbers of cells, as many as 1 million in a matter of minutes, and so can be used to detect extremely rare cells. For example fluorescent molecules can be introduced to cells within a blood sample and engineered, using anti-bodies, to selectively attach to any cancerous cells present. Flow analysis then identifies and counts these cells providing a measure of the number of diseased cells within the sample.This project will adapt a commercial flow cytometer, replacing the existing single colour laser with a multi-colour, 'white-light' laser. This provides laser light at wavelengths covering the whole of the visible spectrum and so can be used with any fluorescent molecule. Currently this choice is limited as each molecular species requires a specific wavelength of light to generate fluorescence. This unlimited availability of colour will allow multi-label experiments in which a large number of different fluorescent probes can be simultaneously introduced to the cell thus providing information on multiple interactions and processes within the cell. The modified cytometer will be used with lymphocytes (immune system cells) to gain a better understanding of childhood immunity in new born infants and its development during pregnancy.