Real lab failures, root causes, and fixes — curated and bilingually annotated by our team.
Expected cell surface markers show weak or absent staining despite known expression in the cell type. Loss of fluorescence intensity occurs specifically for membrane proteins, while intracellular markers remain detectable.
Flow cytometry data shows elevated background fluorescence with poor separation between positive and negative populations. Non-specific staining creates high-intensity fluorescence across all cells, obscuring true positive signals and making gating difficult.
Flow cytometry SSC channel shows elevated background noise from small particles and debris. Event plots display excessive scatter in low SSC/FSC regions, indicating presence of cell fragments or contaminants.
Flow cytometer records excessive events per second (>10,000/sec), leading to coincidence errors where multiple cells pass through the laser simultaneously. Data shows abnormal event clustering and unreliable fluorescence measurements.
Flow cytometry multicolor panels show false-positive signals in channels not expected to be positive. Positive populations appear in multiple fluorescence channels due to spectral overlap between fluorochromes, making accurate population identification impossible.
Flow cytometry plots display two or more distinct cell populations where only one homogeneous population was expected. A second population often appears at approximately twice the fluorescence intensity of the primary population.
Flow cytometer records very few events per second during sample acquisition, requiring extended run times to collect sufficient data. Analysis shows inadequate cell counts for statistically meaningful conclusions.
Flow cytometry analysis shows absent or extremely weak fluorescent signal from labeled cells, making it impossible to distinguish positive populations from negative controls. Expected fluorescence peaks are not visible or barely detectable above background.
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