Cell-population tracking using quantum dots in flow cytometry

We have used flow-cytometry together with computational modeling of quantum dot portioning during cell division to identify population distributions of proliferating cells. The objective has been to develop a robust assay of integrated cellular fluorescence which reports the extent of cellular bifurcation within a complex population and potentially provides profiles of drug resistance, cell clonality and levels of aneuploidy in tumour cells. The implementation of a data analysis program based on genetic algorithms provides a complete description of the proliferation dynamics and gives values for the inter-mitotic time, the partitioning ratio of quantum dots between daughter cells and their associated deviations.