Cytometry

Cytometry is a powerful technique to determine multiple physical, chemical and functional characteristics of a cell in high-throughput. In the current 'single-cell' era, this technique will become more and more important. It has very broad applications:

• Identification and quantification of cell populations
• Static functional measurements (apoptosis, oxidative stress, protein activity, cytokine production, proliferation, signal transduction, phagocytosis, ….)
• Dynamic functional measurements (migration, uptake, flux, membrane processes)

Cytometry is divided in

• Flow cytometry for measurements of cells in suspension (eg. in blood or isolated from tissue): Dr Kristiaan Wouters
• High content cytometrie (HCC) for measurements of cells in culture dishes. The current generation of flow cytometers can measure multiple markers simultaneously (>18 for flow cytometry and 3-6 markers for HCC: Prof. Erik Biessen & Prof. Leon Schurgers