Flow Cytometry Synthetic Cell Controls
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Flow Cytometry Synthetic Cell Controls by Slingshot
Spend less time qualifying results, and more time getting results. Slingshot’s Flow Cytometry Synthetic Cell Controls make these goals achievable in your experiments. The revolutionary technology decreases cost, shortens development timelines and increases stability, impact and accessibility. This is a new paradigm for drug development, diagnostics and cell therapy – one without limitations.
Spend less time and resources developing cell reference materials and QC standards and more time:
- Advancing translational research
- Achieving unparalleled cell analysis and biomarker quantitation
- Streamlining QC processes for cell therapies to get them to patients faster
Overview
The most advanced and ideal cell control
Through the intersection of biochemistry, polymer chemistry and high-precision manufacturing, we have created FlowCytes® – synthetic cells that are indistinguishable from real cells. The Slingshot platform is the world’s first on demand, synthetic cell design platform to address the industry’s reliance on and limitations around biologically-derived cellular controls. This breakthrough technology creates synthetic cells that match the optical, fluorescence and biochemical features of any cell type – even rare disease types. The result is the ideal cell control, achieved without sacrificing performance or consistency.
FlowCytes® are shelf stable and can be custom printed on-demand, at scale, in real time. Slingshot’s technology decreases cost, shortens development timelines and increases accessibility to cell controls. Our cutting-edge technology platform can be used in a range of applications including:
- Assay development
- Laboratory diagnostics
- Adoptive cell therapy
- Drug development
- Cell analysis instrument performance
The breakthrough technology creates synthetic cells that match the optical, fluorescence and biochemical features of any cell type, even rare disease types. FlowCytes® – the backbone of our products – are a series of synthetic cells assembled in a 3D spherical matrix, physically resembling a cell. FlowCytes® are nearly indistinguishable between live cells when analyzed in a flow cytometer. This makes FlowCytes® the ideal cell controls to calibrate, standardize and ensure performance for instruments and assays.
Synthetic Cells for high-precision calibration in flow cytometry
Complete Customization
Slingshot scientists can partner with you to customize our products to your needs, on demand. Our technology is built on proprietary predictive modeling, uniquely designed microsystems, and a manufacturing platform that precisely creates off-the-shelf solutions for cell-like reagents that are stable and cost effective, in just hours. We can quickly scale to bioprint custom FlowCytes® with extreme precision and high throughput while meeting high ISO 9001 quality standards.
Current methods vs. Slingshot
In flow cytometry, controls have traditionally come from blood donations or solid-core plastic beads. Current blood controls cannot be manufactured without using technology to combine human and animal cells or sourcing primary cells from active donors. Only <1% of blood diseases have available controls.
| Biological Controls ⊘ High cost ⊘ Batch-to-batch variability ⊘ Cell line maintenance ⊘ Biohazardous shipping and handling ⊘ Poor stability | Polystyrene solid-core beads ⊘ High non-specific binding ⊘ No mimicking of cell autofluorescence ⊘ Fundamentally different properties from cells, incl. RI and FSC vs SSC |
The innovative technology from Slingshot Biosciences is designed to help researchers get customizable cellular controls quickly, without sourcing primary cells or generating cell banks. Even the rarest of diseases can accurately be profiled with an off-of-the-shelf control product.
Advantages of Slingshot technology
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Instrument Calibration Controls
FlowCytes® synthetic white blood cells (WBC) are shelf stable synthetic cells that mimic the optical properties of human blood populations for unfixed lymphocytes, monocytes, and granulocytes. This product is intended as a forward and side scatter control for the identification and analysis of whole blood populations.
The synthetic mimics can be used to measure flow cytometry instrument performance or as an assay control for traceability and standardization.
Features:
- Easy to use and seamlessly fits into existing workflow. No special handling and preparation, unlike with biological controls
- Highly precise performance with minimal lot-to-lot variability
- Long shelf-life and stability at room temperature for convenient use in the field
- Safe, non-biohazardous product that travels anywhere
Compensation Controls
Synthetic fluorescence compensation controls designed for the modern spectral flow cytometry. SpectraComp® compensation controls are state-of-the-art synthetic cells that mimic the scatter profile of lymphocytes, captures multiple species of antibodies, and matches the spectral fluorescence of stained cells. This product is intended for spectral compensation to match the single staining of real cells. Staining with the capture beads yield a positive and a negative fluorescence peak that will aid in resolving the performance of the dyes and in compensating for spectral overlaps of dyes.
Optimize your spectral flow analysis
Fluorescence, compensation, and cellular controls are the backbone of generating reliable flow cytometry data. Polystyrene solid-core beads used for instrument and assay setup have high levels of non-specific binding, do not mimic cell autofluorescence, and have fundamentally different properties from cells, including FSC vs SSC. This leads to controls that do not match the spectral profile of single stained cells, under-or over-compensation calculations, and ultimately compromised accuracy of data.
Autofluorescence in Spectral Analysis. Autofluorescence across a full emission spectrum was evaluated for cells, SpectraComp® and competitor polystyrene-based compensation beads.
SpectraComp®
SpectraComp® are single stain controls that optimize spectral unmixing results to reduce errors associated with spectral overlap. These controls mimic the staining performance of real cells. SpectraComp® captures multiple species of antibodies, including mouse, rat, and hamster. This product is intended for spectral mixing or conventional compensation to match the single staining of real cells. Staining with SpectraComp® yields a positive and negative fluorescence peak that will aid in resolving spectral overlap during spectral unmixing or compensation.
This product comes in one vial with negative and positive capture mimics combined.
Benefits:
- Unparalleled high fluorescence response (greater than 10e5 MFI on most bright fluorochrome)
- Conveniently works with multiple species of antibodies: mouse, rat, and hamster
- Exceptional performance in spectral analysis and unmixing
- Compatible with violet and UV fluorochromes
- Cell-like autofluorescence for superior signal-to-noise resolution
SpectraComp® Unmixing Controls
SpectraComp® XT single stain controls optimize spectral unmixing results to reduce errors associated with spectral overlap, now with 5 species capability including rabbit and human. These controls are intended to match the staining performance of real cells. Staining with SpectraComp® XT yields a positive and negative fluorescence peak that will aid in resolving spectral overlap during spectral unmixing or compensation.
Benefits:
Unparalleled high fluorescence response (greater than 10e5 MFI on most bright fluorochrome)
Conveniently works with multiple species of antibodies: mouse, rat, hamster, rabbit, and human
Exceptional performance for unmixing/compensation across instrument platforms
Compatible with violet, UV fluorochrome, and tandem dyes
Consistent fluorescence signals for reliable performance
Designed to support easier analysis workflows with their cell-like attributes (size, scatter, and autofluorescence)
Combined positive and negative populations for ease-of-use
HyParComp™
HyParComp™ Compensation Controls are single stain controls that optimize compensation results to reduce errors associated with spectral overlap. These cell mimics are intended as compensation controls to match the single-staining performance of real cells. Staining HyParComp™ yields a positive fluorescence histogram that will aid in resolving the performance of the fluorophore; it will also serve as the basis for the positive signal of a given fluorophore for conventional compensation and spectral unmixing.
This product is conveniently packaged in positive and negative vials for ease of use.
Benefits:
- Unparalleled high fluorescence response (greater than 10e5 MFI on most bright fluorochromes)
- Conveniently works with multiple species of antibodies: mouse, rat, and hamster
- Exceptional performance for compensation across instrument platforms
- Compatible with violet, UV fluorochrome, and tandem dyes
- Cell-like autofluorescence for superior signal-to-noise resolution
HyParComp™ XT
HyParComp™ XT single stain controls optimize compensation results to reduce errors associated with spectral overlap, now with 5 species capability including rabbit and human. These controls are designed to match the staining performance of real cells. Staining HyParComp™ XT yields a positive fluorescence histogram that will aid in resolving the performance of the fluorophore; it will also serve as the basis for the positive signal of a given fluorophore for conventional compensation and spectral unmixing.
Benefits:
Unparalleled high fluorescence response (greater than 10e5 MFI on most bright fluorochromes)
Conveniently works with multiple species of antibodies: mouse, rat, hamster, rabbit, and human
Exceptional performance for compensation/unmixing across instrument platforms
Compatible with violet, UV fluorochrome, and tandem dyes
Consistent fluorescence signals for reliable performance
Designed to support easier analysis workflows with their cell-like attributes (size, scatter, and autofluorescence)
Separate positive and negative vials for the maximum number of tests
SpectraComp® eGFP
SpectraComp® eGFP controls are multi-level fluorescent controls for unmixing, compensation, and benchmarking. These controls are ideal for both spectral and conventional flow cytometry.
Benefits:
- State-of-the-art controls designed using actual eGFP protein (excitation peak at 488 nm and max emission at 507 nm)
- Three mean fluorescence intensity levels (low, medium, and high)
- Consistent fluorescence signals for reliable performance
- Cell-like autofluorescence for workflow efficiency
SpectraComp® mCherry
SpectraComp® mCherry controls are multi-level fluorescent controls for unmixing, compensation, and benchmarking. These controls are ideal for both spectral and conventional flow cytometry.
Benefits:
State-of-the-art controls designed using actual mCherry protein (excitation peak at 587 nm and max emission at 610 nm)
Three mean fluorescence intensity levels (low, medium, and high)
Consistent fluorescence signals for reliable performance
Cell-like autofluorescence for workflow efficiency
Cell Health Controls
Convenient and reliable controls to measure cell health.
Viability staining is important both in experimental research and therapeutic applications of flow cytometry. Creating consistent, reliable cell viability controls is difficult, which becomes much harder when researchers have limited biospecimens. Currently, common viability control methods require researchers to kill a portion of their cells in an added step that is wasteful, time-consuming, and often still does not achieve the desired standard of control.
ViaComp® Viability Controls
ViaComp® viability controls are advanced 2-in-1 beads that bind to DNA intercalating dyes (7AAD, PI) and amine-reactive viability dyes to simulate the staining of cells.
This product is intended as process and assay controls to match the viability staining of real cells. The combination of positive and negative binding beads yields positive and negative fluorescence peaks that will aid in identifying the live and dead cell populations.
High DNA Binding. ViaComp® beads have encapsulated DNA which yield a high and specific signal to DNA intercalating dyes. Moreover, the mixed positive and negative beads result in clear separation of the peaks.
Benefits:
- The only viability control that binds to both DNA and amine-reactive viability dyes
- Exceptionally positive peak signal (greater than 105 MFI to make detection easy
- Zero non-specific binding to the negative peak
- Conveniently pre-mixed negative and positive control beads in a ready-to-use dropper bottle
CellTraX® Tox
Convenient and reliable controls to measure cell health. CellTraX™ Tox viability controls are advanced 2-in-1 beads that bind to DNA intercalating dyes (7AAD, PI) and amine-reactive viability dyes to simulate the staining of cells.
This product is intended as a process and assay control to match the viability staining of real cells. Packaged in two bottles with the positive and negative controls in separate vials.
Benefits:
- Compatible with both DNA intercalating dyes (7AAD, PI) and amine-reactive viability dyes
- Superior resolution of negative and positive peaks
- Measure toxicity with confidence
- Workflow flexibility for toxicity study with separated positive and negative controls
Biomarker Controls
High performance synthetic cells with key biomarkers. Experience a new level of accuracy and reliability.
Flow cytometry, a critical enabling technology, has significantly advanced over the last 30 years, with the exception of cellular controls. Current blood controls cannot be manufactured without using technology to combine human and animal cells or sourcing primary cells from active donors. Only <1% of blood diseases have available controls. These biological controls have high cost, batch-to-batch variability, cell line maintenance, biohazardous shipping and handling, and poor stability.
TruCytes™ products:
- TruCytes™ TBNK
- TruCytes™ TBMNK
- TruCytes™ Fixed Synthetic WBC
- TruCytes™ NK CD56/CD16+
- TruCytes™ B-Cell CD19+
- TruCytes™ T-Cell CD8+
- TruCytes™ T-Cell CD4+
- TruCytes™ CD45(+), CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+), CD19(+), CD14(+), CD16(+), CD56(+)
On top of these, TruCytes™ can be customized to match rare diseases – a known bottleneck in development – and any hematological malignancy in record time.
TruCytes™ TBNK Synthetic Cellular Controls match the biochemical profile and optical properties of any target cell population, eliminating the drawbacks that traditionally come with using bio-based cellular controls.
Benefits:
- Easy to use and seamlessly fits into existing workflow. No special handling and preparation, unlike with biological controls
- Safe, non-biohazardous product that travels anywhere
- Accurate antigen density to match the correct cell types
- Biomarker “expression” can be tuned to match poorly-expressed markers
- Superior consistency and reliability with minimal lot-to-lot variability as compared to traditional controls
- Long shelf-life and stability at room temperature for convenient use in the field compared to biologically-derived cellular controls
CTx TruCytes™ CD19 Quantitative Antigen Density
CTx TruCytes™ CD19 Quantitative Antigen Density cell mimics can quantify CD19 molecules bound per cell, providing a robust foundation for patient stratification, disease monitoring, and drug development processes. Using your PE or APC bound CD19 antibody, you can directly obtain your sample’s antibody binding capacity without knowing how many fluorophore molecules are on your antibody. CTx TruCytes CD19 Quantitative Antigen Density cell mimics, therefore, allow for consistent readout of CD19 expression in a simple and easy-to-use quantitative assay. This product is NOT derived from biospecimens, so it is not biohazardous and does not require special disposal or processing.
The product contains four populations:
- CD19+ High (~25%) ~47000 molecules
- CD19+Medium (~25%) ~12000 molecules
- CD19+ Low (~25%) ~2500 molecules
- CD19 negative (~25%) molecules
Single Biomarker Controls
Single Biomarker Controls are the ideal process control for assays that have measured readouts using flow cytometry in cell therapy applications. Our portfolio includes markers such as CD69, OX40 (CD134), PD-L1 (CD274) and other activation, exhaustion and rare markers.