Flow cytometry advances in the clinical and military arenas

Patients' clinical symptoms do not always follow the textbooks to direct doctors to a single genetic defect, and flow cytometry is key in providing this vital information. [...]if a patient has a bone marrow disease that generates more promyelocytes or other earlier-stage cells, flow cytometry has proven to be beneficial in measurement of these cells due to their size and constituents. Flow cytometry is also used frequently in medical research, as it enables tracking of cell generations depending on the study and research focus. Military applications Within the last decade, flow cytometry has been utilized in bio-detection for the military, in response to a threat whose true magnitude may have come to be broadly understood only during the Gulf War era and since. Flow cytometry is utilized in the U.S. Department of Defense's BIDS (Biological Integrated Detection System), its standardized bio-agent threat matrix. By enabling tracking of cell development within...