Flow cytometry is a highly utilized and incredibly powerful technique owing to it being a high-throughput, high-sensitivity, multi-parametric analysis tool. Flow cytometers have been utilized in research for several decades and as such are very well characterized instruments.
Small particle research is not new on flow cytometers. As early as the late 70s, single viruses were analyzed using flow cytometry. In recent years, extracellular vesicle analysis has been conducted using flow cytometry. While a great deal of research has been done on extracellular vesicles using flow cytometry, the vast majority of literature is not standardized making it impossible to properly interpret or reproduce published data. It has become clear to the field that standardisation is needed for small particle analysis, and much greater knowledge of flow cytometers themselves is required to perform small particle analysis when compared to cellular analysis.
The information on this website is intended to help understand how flow cytometers work, how they can be improved, and how they can be standardized.