Flow Cytometry & FACS | Beginner Data Interpretation Tutorial

This is what you need to know about Flow Cytometry and FACS. The crash course.

Flow cytometry is a method for analysing cells, used by immunologists and many other fields. Flow cytometers work through micro fluidics (to flow the cells) and use lasers for generating information on cell size(FSC), cell granularity (SSC) and fluorescence. In flow cytometry data, each cell is 1 dot. Gating is used to focus in on the cells of interest. Fluorescence is used, by dye or anti-body labelling to get information on the sample. Cell sorting facilitated capturing the cell population of interest for further experiments.

I share some flow cytometry data examples to understand a gating workflow and how to read gating.

I found a clear example of cell sorting of fluorescent parasites inside a host cell. This includes microscopy of the sorted cells. I find it hard to imagine things without microscopy, I'm a visual learner so I hope these examples were nice and clear.

Pop any questions you have in the comment section and I'll do my best to answer them. BUT disclaimer- I'm just a grad student with a few years of hands-on experience & I'm not an expert.

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Figures made using Biorender

Figures cited as Tandel et al, 2019 are from:

Thanks to University of Dundee Flow Cytometry & Cell Sorting Facility for teaching me everything I know.

#Biology #FlowCytometry #BiologyMajor #FACS #Immunology #CrashCourse

[localvillageidiot]

So in flow cytometry, do you tag the cells with fluorescent antibodies (or whatever additional selective procedures) first before running it through? Or is it common to run it more than once in a lab with different treatments on the population?

Thanks for the video!

[gordonli]

As an undergrad who is struggling to understand all the immunology papers, you helped me a lot, thank you!

[pablomanuelgonzalez]

"Understanding flow figures from real publications" was the best section. Of course only because it kind of put in practice what you clearly explained before. Thank you!

[EmmaSandy]

So here's the TLDR on flow cytometry and FACS!

What is flow cytometry? - 0:38
Flow cytometry Vs FACS? - 1:45
What happens with flow data? - 2:06
Summary of data analysis - 5:22
Understanding figures - 5:46
Summary diagrams - 8:22

[aaaMDML]

One of the best biology explanations on Youtube, thanks! Incredibly helpful

[CristinaGarcia-rdfb]

Thank you so much Emma for providing a concise introduction of flow cytometry. Most videos make everything so confusing and difficult.

[willt]

This is fantastic! I'm an immunology master student and this has really helped me out (having not experienced much flow before). It'd be fantastic to see you make a series on different techniques (such as western blot or qPCR), particularly on the data interpretation as you explain it so well.

[claudiawidjaja]

I'm so happy!! I finally understand what all these images actually show. I can't thank you enough.

[broadwall]

The master stroke on this video are the simplified graphs on the side of the lab data that explain what really happening to the cell... fantastic!!! great video!!!

[rexcenteno]

This is a great help for me as a medical technologist running CD4 enumeration using Beckman-Coulter Aquios CL flowcytometer.

[farisfaris]

As a brand new grad student, this was super helpful! Thank you so much!!

[hsianloon]

this is one of the most diverse channels I've visited with original content. I came and left learning about flow cytometry, went to look for more and realised there were cat videos, pancakes and how to sew curtains. Im going to look at western blot next. I'm starting a lab research role and have been scouring youtube to not look like an idiot on the first day, week, month.

Thank you for the content !

[mamltr]

Thank you so much. This is the kind of explanation I was looking for years!

[darkprinzessin]

My English is not that good. But you speak so clear that i could understand everything. Thanks for the great video. :)

[bitbybit]

I am so glad to have found your channel. Thank you for making science easy for newbies like me.

[mirandab.]

This was a wonderful description with excellent graphs and clear explanation! Thank you!

[houda]

Super interesting ! Big thank you from Morocco

[rajviparekh]

This was so helpful and concise. It's perfect for a quick revision! Thank you!

[felicitymarx]

As someone just starting their PhD, this is so useful! Thank you so much!

[jessicadavis]

INCREDIBLY helpful! Thank you so much! To the point, and with real world examples is perfect!