What is cytometry?
Cytometry refers to the measurement (-metry) of cells (cyto-). These measurements may be of the cell’s physical properties (length, volume, etc.) or of its biochemical properties (protein content, lipid content etc.) Traditionally these measurements have been made by light or fluorescence microscopy. Microscopy is a labour-intensive task, prone to error and operator fatigue. It is also slow to perform and consequently conclusions are drawn from measurements of, at best, a few hundred cells. An alternative method of measuring protein content for example, would be to perform bulk biochemical measurements on a population of cells. However in doing this one makes the assumption that all of the cells in a population are behaving in a similar manner. The extent to which this assumption is true will vary with the cell type under investigation but in many cases the heterogeneity of a population of cells will be large, not least because of changes that occur as the cells progress through the ce
