Time-Resolved Flow Cytometry Unlocks Simplified Workflows and Higher Sensitivity
Presented by:
Giacomo Vacca, Kinetic RiverThe analysis of cells for research and diagnostic applications continues to create demand for improvements—in performance, but also in ease of use and total cost of ownership. Flow cytometry routinely delivers high-throughput cell counting and identification, but it suffers from several unresolved bottleneck, such as: (i) spectral spillover, requiring burdensome compensation protocols; and (ii) high autofluorescence background, which reduces assay sensitivity. Time-Resolved Flow Cytometry (TRFC) is a new suite of technologies that addresses these and other issues. By capturing fluorescence information in the time domain as well as in the wavelength domain, TRFC allows the discrimination of fluorophores with completely overlapping spectra. Using TRFC we have demonstrated compensation-free flow cytometry, which drastically simplifies the user experience; and autofluorescence-free flow cytometry, which increases the sensitivity of cell assays. In addition, by exploiting a new dimension of measurement, TRFC paves the way for fluorescence-based multiplexing to 40 colors and beyond.
About the presenter
Giacomo Vacca, Ph.D., earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in physics from Harvard University and a doctorate degree in applied physics from Stanford University. With Nobel Prize winner Bob Laughlin, he developed a novel ultrafast light scattering technique for his dissertation. He has set up entire laboratories from scratch, started and led development programs, and generated intellectual property, with 104 patent applications and 67 patents issued or allowed to date. He has also led diverse interdisciplinary groups and managed IP portfolios.
At Abbott Labs, Vacca invented and developed Laser Rastering, a radically innovative concept in flow cytometry that increased the rate of cell analysis by a factor of 30. In 2010 Vacca founded Kinetic River, a biophotonics design and product development company focused on flow cytometry. Since 2017, Kinetic River has been awarded five competitive Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants from the National Institutes of Health, totaling about $5M to date, to help develop innovative flow cytometry technologies. Kinetic River's customers include the National Cancer Institute at the NIH, Italy's National Research Council, leading academic institutions like UC Davis, and enterprises from startups to Fortune 500 companies.
In 2013 Vacca cofounded BeamWise, a provider of optical system design tools. He is a past Abbott Research Fellow and a senior member of both SPIE and Optica, and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of BioPhotonics magazine.
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Oxxius is a laser design and manufacturing house founded in 2002 to bring disruptive innovations to the market of visible lasers. We develop advanced continuous-wave laser modules targeting numerous applications in bio-photonics, metrology, spectroscopy and other analytics and instrumentation applications, for both research and industry customers. Oxxius is headquartered in western France and located among a major optics and photonics cluster.