A new window into cells: Iowa State upgrades flow cytometry power

Shawn Rigby, manager of Iowa State’s Flow Cytometry Facility in the Office of Biotechnology, has a gift for making complex science sound simple. “Flow cytometry is basically taking a census of cells,” he likes to say. Thousands pass through an instrument’s laser beam each second, revealing each individual cell’s size, shape, and molecular “colors.”

Now, thanks to a transformational gift from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, Rigby is helping Iowa State researchers take a leap forward with the BD FACSDiscover A8 Cell Analyzer. The analyzer will work in conjunction with a previously acquired FACSDiscover S8 Cell Sorter. Together, these instruments which are normally found only at large research hospitals, are opening new doors for discovery across Iowa State’s campus and beyond.

“These are the best instruments on the market by far — and we have them here,” Rigby said. “Without the Carver Trust, that simply wouldn’t have been possible.”

What flow cytometry does

During flow cytometry, thousands of cells pass one by one through a laser beam, revealing their size, shape, and molecular “fingerprints.” By tagging cells with fluorescent markers — what Rigby calls “colors” — scientists can track dozens of features at once.

Older instruments at Iowa State topped out at 10-12 colors. That limited the number of questions researchers could ask in a single experiment. With the FACSDiscover A8, researchers can track 20 or more colors, exponentially multiplying the combinations they can measure. “It’s not just plus one,” Rigby explained. “Every new color adds factorially to what you can analyze.”

Because it’s a spectral flow cytometer, the A8 can also untangle overlapping signals, giving researchers more flexibility in panel design and reducing the need for trial-and-error setup.

Why the new instrument matters

Beyond the sheer number of markers, the A8 adds something entirely new: imaging. Traditional flow cytometers could measure a cell’s characteristics, but they lacked the ability to show where those features were located inside the cell. The new instrument captures spatial detail in real time, letting researchers see, for example, whether two proteins appear in the same region of a cell or in opposite compartments.

The imaging capability also opens the door to studying cell-to-cell interactions, a previous blind spot in flow cytometry. Before, analysts had to discard “doublets” because there was no way to know if two cells were genuinely interacting or just passing close together. “Now we’ll actually be able to define those interactions,” Rigby said. “That’s something completely new.”

Research across disciplines

The new cytometry suite is already at work in fields as varied as human health, agriculture, and environmental science.

• In human and animal health, researchers are using it to get a more detailed picture of how immune cells respond to vaccines and infections — insights that can guide better treatments.
• In agriculture, it’s helping plant breeders quickly check the genetic makeup of new crop lines and supporting researchers in the animal sciences as they study factors that affect reproduction.
• In environmental and microbiology research, the technology is being used to detect rare genetic events in engineered probiotics — living therapeutics designed to secrete drugs directly in the human gut — and even to study how mosquito immune cells interact with disease-causing parasites.

The facility’s reach goes beyond Iowa State. Rigby and his team support collaborators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), biotechnology companies, and universities nationwide. “We’ve received plant tissue samples from across the country — ranging from hops submitted by a company in Washington State to Eurasian watermilfoil sent by SUNY Oneonta (State University of New York),” Rigby said.

A Unique Advantage for Iowa State

With the addition of the BD FACSDiscover A8, Iowa State researchers can now pursue discoveries that were out of reach just months ago — accelerating science from the immune system to agriculture and beyond.

“By any other means we probably wouldn’t have this technology,” Rigby said. “But the Carver Trust and the Office of Biotechnology made it possible. Their support means Iowa State scientists can continue to compete at the very highest levels.”