WO2009019290A2 - An apparatus for cytofluorimetric analyses - Google Patents

An apparatus for cytofluorimetric analyses Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2009019290A2
WO2009019290A2 PCT/EP2008/060353 EP2008060353W WO2009019290A2 WO 2009019290 A2 WO2009019290 A2 WO 2009019290A2 EP 2008060353 W EP2008060353 W EP 2008060353W WO 2009019290 A2 WO2009019290 A2 WO 2009019290A2
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Prior art keywords
signals
channel
perform
procedure
software
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PCT/EP2008/060353
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French (fr)
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WO2009019290A3 (en
Inventor
Giuseppe Gigli
Marco Esposito
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Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche - Infm Istituto Nazionale Per La Fisica Della Materia
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Publication of WO2009019290A2 publication Critical patent/WO2009019290A2/en
Publication of WO2009019290A3 publication Critical patent/WO2009019290A3/en

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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
    • G01N15/00—Investigating characteristics of particles; Investigating permeability, pore-volume or surface-area of porous materials
    • G01N15/10—Investigating individual particles
    • G01N15/14—Optical investigation techniques, e.g. flow cytometry
    • G01N15/1468—Optical investigation techniques, e.g. flow cytometry with spatial resolution of the texture or inner structure of the particle
    • G01N15/147—Optical investigation techniques, e.g. flow cytometry with spatial resolution of the texture or inner structure of the particle the analysis being performed on a sample stream
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
    • G01N21/00—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of optical means, i.e. using sub-millimetre waves, infrared, visible or ultraviolet light
    • G01N21/62—Systems in which the material investigated is excited whereby it emits light or causes a change in wavelength of the incident light
    • G01N21/63—Systems in which the material investigated is excited whereby it emits light or causes a change in wavelength of the incident light optically excited
    • G01N21/64—Fluorescence; Phosphorescence
    • G01N21/645—Specially adapted constructive features of fluorimeters
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
    • G01N15/00—Investigating characteristics of particles; Investigating permeability, pore-volume or surface-area of porous materials
    • G01N15/10—Investigating individual particles
    • G01N15/14—Optical investigation techniques, e.g. flow cytometry
    • G01N15/1429—Signal processing
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
    • G01N21/00—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of optical means, i.e. using sub-millimetre waves, infrared, visible or ultraviolet light
    • G01N21/62—Systems in which the material investigated is excited whereby it emits light or causes a change in wavelength of the incident light
    • G01N21/63—Systems in which the material investigated is excited whereby it emits light or causes a change in wavelength of the incident light optically excited
    • G01N21/64—Fluorescence; Phosphorescence
    • G01N2021/6417—Spectrofluorimetric devices
    • G01N2021/6421—Measuring at two or more wavelengths

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to the field of apparatuses used for cytofluori metric analyses. State of the art
  • the cytofluorimetric devices offered by the known art are used in diagnostics in order to measure and characterize cells suspended in a fluid medium.
  • a great number of cells may be analyzed in a short time by these devices, even 50,000 cells in a few seconds, quantifying many parameters for every single cell, and determining the content of DNA, RNA thereof, identifying different cell subtypes, intracellular organelles and also the activity of some enzymes.
  • the main drawback that nowadays still characterizes state-of-the-art cytofluorimetric apparatuses relates especially to the analysis of very rare cells which, because of their reduced number, may often be confused with background noise introduced by the electronic circuitry the cytofluorimetric apparatus is formed by.
  • cytofluorimetric apparatuses The operation of common cytofluorimetric apparatuses is based on the scanning of two kinds of cell scatter with 3-6 different wave-length fluorescences by means of voluminous appropriate optoelectronic devices for each fluorescence examined.
  • the operation occurs in detail as follows: a monodispersed cell suspension passes through a quartz cuvette with the aid of a fluidic system that allows pumping at different rates. Every cell is hit by a 488 nm wavelength laser beam so that a front and side scatter displaying the same wavelength is generated. A biconvex lens for focusing this scatter and a vertical bar to interrupt the beam generated by the laser are placed in a diametrically opposite position to the laser emitter with respect to said cuvette and is adapted to capture the front scatter.
  • a photomultiplier indicated by PMT hereinafter, is placed after the bar and serves the function of acquiring and converting the light signal to an electric signal.
  • An objective for the collection of all of the fluorescent emissions and of the side scatter is positioned at a 90 degree angle with respect to the laser emission.
  • the objective collimates the beam by directing it to a voluminous and very expensive optical system, which is formed by a sequence of dichroic filters, which may be crossed by certain emissions, for instance having a longer wavelength than a preset value, and reflect others.
  • said filters are oriented so as to deviate the filtered beams by about 90 degrees. These are focused by appropriate lenses towards as many PMTs.
  • the current signals are converted to voltage signals
  • the signal is preamplified and converted with logarithmic amplifiers; - then, the signals enter two parallel stages: a trigger stage serving to generate the "start scan" signal, formed by a channel threshold comparator useful to define the logic that leads to the acquisition of the signals on the various channels, and the other one is the peak detector stage adapted to store the signal peaks.
  • a trigger stage serving to generate the "start scan" signal, formed by a channel threshold comparator useful to define the logic that leads to the acquisition of the signals on the various channels
  • the other one is the peak detector stage adapted to store the signal peaks.
  • the present invention therefore aims to achieve the above mentioned objects by providing an apparatus for cytofluorimetric analyses including an optical system which according to claim 1 is characterized in that it is formed by: at least one multi-channel photomultiplier (PMT) (1 ) based on CCD technology adapted to perform the parallel transduction of at least three different wavelength channels; at least one braided optical fiber (4) adapted to detect scatter and fluorescence signals, which conveys them by mixing them on said at least one multi-channel
  • PMT photomultiplier
  • collimating lenses (3) adapted to project said signals on said at least one multichannel PMT; calibrated interferential filters (2), positioned immediately downstream of said collimating lenses, adapted to subdivide the signals of the at least three different channels.
  • the signal by converting to a digital format the signals acquired immediately downstream of said optical system, by means of a parallel acquisition board with at least three channels having a resolution e.g. of 16 bits and known per se, the signal may be conditioned by means of only routine software considerably lowering the background noise and integrally eliminating the normal electronic circuitry.
  • the present invention therefore is best applied when it is combined to a conditioning and processing chain of the entirely digital signals.
  • Figure 1 shows a signal conditioning and processing chain
  • Figure 2 diagrammatically shows the use of an optical system formed by a multichannel PMT which can, on its own, transduce at least three channels at the same time, one fluorescence channel and two scatter channels, and is combined to a single-channel PMT adapted to detect the front scatter.
  • the present invention relates to an apparatus for cytofluorimetric analyses including an optical system mainly formed by: at least one multi-channel PMT 1 based on CCD technology adapted to perform the parallel transduction of at least three different wavelength channels; at least one braided optical fiber 4 adapted to collect scatter and fluorescence signals, which conveys them by mixing them on said at least one multi-channel
  • PMT PMT
  • collimating lenses 3 adapted to project said signals on said at least one multi-channel PMT
  • calibrated interferential filters 2 positioned immediately downstream of said collimating lenses, adapted to subdivide the signals of the at least three different channels.
  • an apparatus for cytofluorimetric analyses may include at least one multi-channel PMT and a single-channel photomultiplier for the front scatter. Furthermore, said multi-channel PMT allows to considerably decrease the noise produced by the dark current, i.e. the current produced in any case by a photoreceptor in the period of time in which it is not irradiated, outputted from every channel of the normal PMTs. In a preferred embodiment of the device according to the present invention the dark current results half of that of traditional PMTs at the highest amplification.
  • an apparatus for cytofluori metric analyses is based on a multi-channel PMT which provides even sixteen output channels.
  • analog signals outputted from the optical system may be processed with the common conditioning chain partially consisting of electronic circuitry in order to form the above mentioned conditioning stages.
  • said optical system has been combined to an entirely digital conditioning chain.
  • the signals are converted to digital immediately downstream of said optical system, by means of a first A/D converter and subsequently processed by means of routine software known per se and adapted to obtain the same conditioning effects obtained by a traditional conditioning chain, although with the advantage of enormously decreasing the background noise.
  • a preferred conditioning chain including procedures operating in the digital domain downstream of said first A/D converter is as follows: a. a procedure, designated baseline restoration, adapted to make an average in time so as to allow a compensation of the so-called dark current; b. an amplification procedure adapted to perform the amplification of the signals by means of a modulation, appropriately varying the anodic gain of the optical system and improving the sensitivity and resolution thereof; c. a procedure adapted to compensate the overlapping of particularly extensive spectral bands of photoluminescence signals of the fluorophores; d. a procedure adapted to perform a logarithmic amplification for a better representation of the signal dynamics; e.
  • a procedure adapted to perform a Peak Detector stage which, through derivative controllers and through the selection of a threshold, allows to detect the peaks present in the signals acquired in a given interval of time; f. a procedure adapted to perform the trigger stage for the generation of the start scan for each signal related to each acquired channel; g. a procedure adapted to allow the switch for the selection of one or more trigger signals selectable among those available for a better filtering, h. a procedure adapted to perform a statistical processing of the signals and for the computation of the statistical parameters useful in cytofluorimetry, such as the variation coefficient etc.; i. a procedure adapted to allow at least one diagrammatic representation of the signals on histograms and dot plots.
  • the trigger routine allows to select the most appropriate signal among the seventeen available.
  • the apparatus is completed by display means and input, output and pointing devices for interface with humans.
  • Said procedures may be conveniently implemented with routine software, particularly know to a person skilled in the art and may advantageously be implemented in any programming language, such as e.g. C, C++, Visual Basic or Matlab, or they may be implemented by means of a signal acquisition and analysis environment, for instance the Labview, already provided with libraries suitable to implement said procedures and able to convert them in a simple manner in a machine language.
  • the present invention may be advantageously implemented by means of a computer software that includes encoding means for performing one o more stages of the signal conditioning chain, when this program runs on a computer.
  • the protective scope is intended to extend to said computer software and also to computer readable means including a recorded message, said computer readable means including software encoding means for performing one or more steps of the method, when said software runs on a computer. Variations may be made to the non-limitative example disclosed, without however departing from the protective scope of the present invention, including all of the equivalent embodiments for a person skilled in the art.

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  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Biochemistry (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Analytical Chemistry (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Immunology (AREA)
  • Pathology (AREA)
  • Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy & Molecular Imaging (AREA)
  • Dispersion Chemistry (AREA)
  • Investigating, Analyzing Materials By Fluorescence Or Luminescence (AREA)
  • Investigating Or Analysing Materials By The Use Of Chemical Reactions (AREA)
  • Investigating Or Analysing Biological Materials (AREA)

Abstract

There is disclosed an apparatus for cytofluorimetric analyses including an optical system, in which the main functionalities rely on a multi-channel photomultiplier (PMT), and in which the integral replacement of the electronic circuitry for the conditioning and processing of the signals is made possible by means of routine software so as to strongly decrease the background noise and allow more reliable and detailed analyses.

Description

AN APPARATUS FOR CYTOFLUORIMETRIC ANALYSES Field of the invention
The present invention relates to the field of apparatuses used for cytofluori metric analyses. State of the art
The cytofluorimetric devices offered by the known art are used in diagnostics in order to measure and characterize cells suspended in a fluid medium. A great number of cells may be analyzed in a short time by these devices, even 50,000 cells in a few seconds, quantifying many parameters for every single cell, and determining the content of DNA, RNA thereof, identifying different cell subtypes, intracellular organelles and also the activity of some enzymes. The main drawback that nowadays still characterizes state-of-the-art cytofluorimetric apparatuses relates especially to the analysis of very rare cells which, because of their reduced number, may often be confused with background noise introduced by the electronic circuitry the cytofluorimetric apparatus is formed by.
The operation of common cytofluorimetric apparatuses is based on the scanning of two kinds of cell scatter with 3-6 different wave-length fluorescences by means of voluminous appropriate optoelectronic devices for each fluorescence examined. With reference to Figure 1 , the operation occurs in detail as follows: a monodispersed cell suspension passes through a quartz cuvette with the aid of a fluidic system that allows pumping at different rates. Every cell is hit by a 488 nm wavelength laser beam so that a front and side scatter displaying the same wavelength is generated. A biconvex lens for focusing this scatter and a vertical bar to interrupt the beam generated by the laser are placed in a diametrically opposite position to the laser emitter with respect to said cuvette and is adapted to capture the front scatter. A photomultiplier, indicated by PMT hereinafter, is placed after the bar and serves the function of acquiring and converting the light signal to an electric signal. An objective for the collection of all of the fluorescent emissions and of the side scatter is positioned at a 90 degree angle with respect to the laser emission. The objective collimates the beam by directing it to a voluminous and very expensive optical system, which is formed by a sequence of dichroic filters, which may be crossed by certain emissions, for instance having a longer wavelength than a preset value, and reflect others. Specifically, said filters are oriented so as to deviate the filtered beams by about 90 degrees. These are focused by appropriate lenses towards as many PMTs.
Generally, four PMTs are used for as many fluorescences with the addition of two more PMTs for two scatters; therefore, six PMTs, six focusing lenses, five dichroic filters are required for each fluorescence to be deviated and one deviation for a scatter. Once the light signals have been acquired as current signals, they must be appropriately conditioned and processed:
- first of all, the current signals are converted to voltage signals;
- then they are filtered by means of a filter designated Baseline Restoration;
- then the signal is preamplified and converted with logarithmic amplifiers; - then, the signals enter two parallel stages: a trigger stage serving to generate the "start scan" signal, formed by a channel threshold comparator useful to define the logic that leads to the acquisition of the signals on the various channels, and the other one is the peak detector stage adapted to store the signal peaks. As said processing and conditioning of the signals is entirely carried out in the analog domain, this implies the use of electronic circuitry which introduces considerable noise.
This also implies the exclusion of low intensity signals, which are very useful in the specific field of cytofluorimetry in order to understand how much fluorophore is bound to a cell and specifically in the four-quadrant representation. Furthermore, the conversion by means of integrated circuits follows a determined preset function which may not reflect the modified analysis needs. Therefore, it is apparent that, from the perspective of acquiring the light signal, the machines offered by the known art are formed by voluminous and expensive optical assemblies, whereas, from the perspective of the signal conditioning chain, noise is continuously introduced by the electronic circuitry employed upstream of the analog-digital converter with subsequent limitations on the resolution of the measurement and of the analysis carried out. Summary of the invention
It is the object of the present invention to therefore provide an apparatus for cytofluori metric analyses characterized by a low cost and a small size.
The present invention therefore aims to achieve the above mentioned objects by providing an apparatus for cytofluorimetric analyses including an optical system which according to claim 1 is characterized in that it is formed by: at least one multi-channel photomultiplier (PMT) (1 ) based on CCD technology adapted to perform the parallel transduction of at least three different wavelength channels; at least one braided optical fiber (4) adapted to detect scatter and fluorescence signals, which conveys them by mixing them on said at least one multi-channel
PMT; collimating lenses (3) adapted to project said signals on said at least one multichannel PMT; calibrated interferential filters (2), positioned immediately downstream of said collimating lenses, adapted to subdivide the signals of the at least three different channels.
According to another aspect of the invention, by converting to a digital format the signals acquired immediately downstream of said optical system, by means of a parallel acquisition board with at least three channels having a resolution e.g. of 16 bits and known per se, the signal may be conditioned by means of only routine software considerably lowering the background noise and integrally eliminating the normal electronic circuitry.
The present invention therefore is best applied when it is combined to a conditioning and processing chain of the entirely digital signals.
The dependent claims disclose preferred embodiments of the invention.
Brief description of the drawings
Further features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent in light of the detailed description of a preferred though not exclusive embodiment of a cytofluorimetric analysis apparatus, shown by way of non-limitative example with the aid of the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 shows a signal conditioning and processing chain; Figure 2 diagrammatically shows the use of an optical system formed by a multichannel PMT which can, on its own, transduce at least three channels at the same time, one fluorescence channel and two scatter channels, and is combined to a single-channel PMT adapted to detect the front scatter. The independent claims disclose preferred embodiments of the invention. Detailed description of the invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for cytofluorimetric analyses including an optical system mainly formed by: at least one multi-channel PMT 1 based on CCD technology adapted to perform the parallel transduction of at least three different wavelength channels; at least one braided optical fiber 4 adapted to collect scatter and fluorescence signals, which conveys them by mixing them on said at least one multi-channel
PMT; one or more collimating lenses 3 adapted to project said signals on said at least one multi-channel PMT; one or more calibrated interferential filters 2, positioned immediately downstream of said collimating lenses, adapted to subdivide the signals of the at least three different channels. The use of a PMT based on CCD technology, possibly coupled with components such as prisms and monochromators, allows to eliminate at least 5 single-channel PMTs relative to all of the signals captured laterally at a 90 degree angle and used in the apparatuses of the known art. Specifically, with said single-channel PMTs, related lenses, related dichroic mirrors, related band pass filters and the corresponding mechanical connection and support elements are also eliminated, reducing costs and size.
Therefore, an apparatus for cytofluorimetric analyses may include at least one multi-channel PMT and a single-channel photomultiplier for the front scatter. Furthermore, said multi-channel PMT allows to considerably decrease the noise produced by the dark current, i.e. the current produced in any case by a photoreceptor in the period of time in which it is not irradiated, outputted from every channel of the normal PMTs. In a preferred embodiment of the device according to the present invention the dark current results half of that of traditional PMTs at the highest amplification.
In a preferred embodiment of an apparatus for cytofluori metric analyses, according to the present invention, it is based on a multi-channel PMT which provides even sixteen output channels.
Furthermore, the analog signals outputted from the optical system may be processed with the common conditioning chain partially consisting of electronic circuitry in order to form the above mentioned conditioning stages. In another preferred embodiment, said optical system has been combined to an entirely digital conditioning chain.
Specifically, the signals are converted to digital immediately downstream of said optical system, by means of a first A/D converter and subsequently processed by means of routine software known per se and adapted to obtain the same conditioning effects obtained by a traditional conditioning chain, although with the advantage of enormously decreasing the background noise.
A preferred conditioning chain including procedures operating in the digital domain downstream of said first A/D converter is as follows: a. a procedure, designated baseline restoration, adapted to make an average in time so as to allow a compensation of the so-called dark current; b. an amplification procedure adapted to perform the amplification of the signals by means of a modulation, appropriately varying the anodic gain of the optical system and improving the sensitivity and resolution thereof; c. a procedure adapted to compensate the overlapping of particularly extensive spectral bands of photoluminescence signals of the fluorophores; d. a procedure adapted to perform a logarithmic amplification for a better representation of the signal dynamics; e. a procedure adapted to perform a Peak Detector stage which, through derivative controllers and through the selection of a threshold, allows to detect the peaks present in the signals acquired in a given interval of time; f. a procedure adapted to perform the trigger stage for the generation of the start scan for each signal related to each acquired channel; g. a procedure adapted to allow the switch for the selection of one or more trigger signals selectable among those available for a better filtering, h. a procedure adapted to perform a statistical processing of the signals and for the computation of the statistical parameters useful in cytofluorimetry, such as the variation coefficient etc.; i. a procedure adapted to allow at least one diagrammatic representation of the signals on histograms and dot plots.
In this case, it is possible to proceed to more complex analyses, in virtue of the use of multiple intracellular and membrane fluorochromes at the same time, as only one multi-channel PMT is able to capture at least three distinct radiation bands centered on as many different wavelengths or channels. In accordance to the preferred embodiment in which the multi-channel PMT displays sixteen output channels, the trigger routine allows to select the most appropriate signal among the seventeen available. The apparatus is completed by display means and input, output and pointing devices for interface with humans.
Said procedures may be conveniently implemented with routine software, particularly know to a person skilled in the art and may advantageously be implemented in any programming language, such as e.g. C, C++, Visual Basic or Matlab, or they may be implemented by means of a signal acquisition and analysis environment, for instance the Labview, already provided with libraries suitable to implement said procedures and able to convert them in a simple manner in a machine language. The present invention may be advantageously implemented by means of a computer software that includes encoding means for performing one o more stages of the signal conditioning chain, when this program runs on a computer. Therefore, the protective scope is intended to extend to said computer software and also to computer readable means including a recorded message, said computer readable means including software encoding means for performing one or more steps of the method, when said software runs on a computer. Variations may be made to the non-limitative example disclosed, without however departing from the protective scope of the present invention, including all of the equivalent embodiments for a person skilled in the art.
From the disclosure set forth, a person skilled in the art is able to implement the object of the invention without introducing further structural details.
The specific modes to embody the invention described here do not limit the content of this application, which includes all of the variants of the invention according to the claims.

Claims

1. An apparatus for cytofluori metric analyses including an optical system comprising : at least one multi-channel photomultiplier (PMT) (1 ) based on CCD technology adapted to perform the parallel transduction of at least three different wavelength channels; at least one braided optical fiber (4) adapted to collect scatter and fluorescence signals, which conveys them by mixing them on said at least one multi-channel
PMT; one or more collimating lenses (3) adapted to project said signals on said at least one multi-channel PMT; one or more calibrated interferential filters (2), positioned immediately downstream of said collimating lenses, adapted to subdivide the signals of the at least three different channels.
2. An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said multi-channel PMT (1 ) is further provided with prisms and monochromators.
3. An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said multi-channel PMT (1 ) is adapted to transduce at the same time sixteen fluorescences and/or scatters at different wavelengths.
4. An apparatus according to claim 1 , further provided with a single-channel photomultiplier for the detection of the front scatter.
5. An apparatus according to claim 1 , further completed by a signal conditioning chain downstream of the multi-channel PMT.
6. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said conditioning chain is promiscuous, i.e. formed by routine software and electronic circuitry.
7. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said conditioning chain is formed by a first analog/digital converter and by further and following stages operating in the digital domain.
8. A method for performing the operations required in said conditioning chain according to claim 7, downstream of said analog/digital converter, characterized in that it includes the following procedures: a. a procedure, designated baseline restoration, adapted to make an average in time so as to allow a compensation of the so-called dark current; b. an amplification procedure adapted to perform the amplification of the signals by means of a modulation, appropriately varying the anodic gain of the optical system and improving the sensitivity and resolution thereof; c. a procedure adapted to compensate the overlapping of particularly extensive spectral bands of photoluminescence signals of the fluorophores; d. a procedure adapted to perform a logarithmic amplification for a better representation of the signal dynamics; e. a procedure adapted to perform a Peak Detector stage which, through derivative controllers and through the selection of a threshold, allows to detect the peaks present in the signals acquired in a given interval of time; f. a procedure adapted to perform the trigger stage for the generation of the start scan for each signal related to each acquired channel; g. a procedure adapted to allow the switch for the selection of one or more trigger signals selectable among those available for a better filtering; h. a procedure adapted to perform a statistical processing of the signals and for the computation of statistical parameters useful in cytofluorimetry, such as the variation coefficient etc.; i. a procedure adapted to allow at least one diagrammatic representation of the signals on histograms and dot plots.
9. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein at least one digital conditioning stage is carried out by means of dedicated hardware.
10. An apparatus according to claim 1 , further provided with display means and input, output and pointing devices for interface with humans.
1 1. A computer software including software encoding means adapted to carry out the signal conditioning stages according to claim 7, when said software is run on a computer.
12. Computer readable means including a recorded software, said computer readable means including software encoding means adapted to perform signal conditioning stages according to claim 7, when said software is run on a computer.
PCT/EP2008/060353 2007-08-06 2008-08-06 An apparatus for cytofluorimetric analyses WO2009019290A2 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
ITMI20071631 ITMI20071631A1 (en) 2007-08-06 2007-08-06 APPARATUS FOR CITOFLUORIMETRIC INVESTIGATIONS
ITMI2007A001631 2007-08-06

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WO2009019290A3 WO2009019290A3 (en) 2009-05-28

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Citations (6)

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US6221671B1 (en) * 1997-12-12 2001-04-24 Chemunex S.A. Digital flow cytometer and method
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US20050057749A1 (en) * 1998-08-21 2005-03-17 Surromed, Inc. Novel optical architectures for microvolume laser-scanning cytometers
US20050104008A1 (en) * 2001-08-28 2005-05-19 Oostman Clifford A.Jr. Fluorescence detection instrument with reflective transfer legs for color decimation
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Patent Citations (6)

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5690105A (en) * 1995-07-04 1997-11-25 Toa Medical Electronics Co., Ltd. Method and apparatus for determining a particle criterion and particle analyzer using the criterion
US6221671B1 (en) * 1997-12-12 2001-04-24 Chemunex S.A. Digital flow cytometer and method
US20050057749A1 (en) * 1998-08-21 2005-03-17 Surromed, Inc. Novel optical architectures for microvolume laser-scanning cytometers
US20050104008A1 (en) * 2001-08-28 2005-05-19 Oostman Clifford A.Jr. Fluorescence detection instrument with reflective transfer legs for color decimation
US20030098422A1 (en) * 2001-11-07 2003-05-29 Silcott David B. System and method for detecting and classifying biological particles
US20050275839A1 (en) * 2004-04-08 2005-12-15 Robinson Joseph P Multi-spectral detector and analysis system

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Title
MURTHI S ET AL: "Improved data acquisition system for digital flow cytometry" 20020101, 1 January 2002 (2002-01-01), XP002507222 *

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ITMI20071631A1 (en) 2009-02-07

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