Instrument standardization can be an added burden to the already complicated flow cytometry workflow. Many products on the market can help address some of these pain points. However, these still come with their caveats, one of which is the inability to mimic the optical performance of white blood cell populations. This then requires adjustments of settings such as threshold, FSC, and SSC after using one of these products.

Polystyrene beads can be used for instrument set-up, spectral unmixing, and compensation when samples are unavailable or as convenient substitutes for faster data generation and analysis. However, polystyrene compensation beads do not possess the same optical properties as biological cells, thus requiring FSC and SSC adjustments during acquisition. This can introduce variation from cytometer to cytometer and another step in the compensation process to prepare unstained white blood cells for FSC and SSC adjustments. 

Slingshot Biosciences offers a unique solution that provides the optical properties of human blood populations for lymphocytes, monocytes, and granulocytes in both fixed or unfixed formats so you can save your cells for science. FlowCytes® synthetic white blood cell (WBC) mimics are non-biohazardous and shelf-stable at room temperature. This product requires no special handling or preparation and is intended as a threshold, forward, and side scatter control. These synthetic mimics can be used for traceability and scatter standardization across multiple flow cytometers. FlowCytes is an excellent tool for teaching novice flow users the significance of threshold, SSC, and FSC adjustments rather than using cells. 

Save your time and cells for science with FlowCytes® from Slingshot Biosciences, which match the optical performance of real cells.