EuroFlow™

Description

Last update: October 1^st, 2019

Cytognos, as part of the EuroFlow™ Consortium, is committed to the development and advance of flow cytometry and the commercialization of novel products for the diagnosis and monitoring of distinct diseases using this technique.

EuroFlow™ is a scientific consortium of Companies and Research groups aiming at the development and standardization of fast, accurate, and highly sensitive flow cytometry tests for diagnosis and prognostic classification of hematological and immunological malignancies as well as for evaluation of treatment effectiveness during follow-up.

The EuroFlow™ consortium is comprised of one small/medium-sized enterprise (SME), Cytognos, and twenty diagnostic research groups which are regarded as experts in the fields of flow cytometry and molecular diagnosis.

For many years, EuroFlow™ has worked in the standardization of 8-color panels for diagnosis, classification and follow-up of hematological malignancies and immunodeficiencies. From the pre-analytical to the post-analytical phase of the whole process, new standards have been validated in different laboratories all over the world to confirm their compatibility and reproducibility. EuroFlow™ 8-color antibody panels and EuroFlow™ Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are designed to be used together with Infinicyt™ software for multidimensional data analysis.

History

The EuroFlow™ Consortium was formed in 2005 in order to initiate the EuroFlow™ project, funded by the sixth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (EU-FP6). This program was created by the European Commission in order to support scientific research and development in the European Union.

The group was initially composed of more than 40 researchers in eight different public university hospital-based institutions in eight European countries and two SMEs. The project was submitted under the thematic priority “Life sciences, genomics and biotechnology for health” and subtopic “Highly sensitive tests for the assessment of hematological malignancies (especially orientated towards the involvement of SMEs)”.

The general aim of the programme was to help Europe exploit research results and to increase the competitiveness of the European biotechnology industry. As a result of the fruitful collaboration of the EuroFlow™ Consortium several papers have been published that explain in detail all the process of standardization and validation of these new approaches. On the same line, Cytognos has licensed some of the EuroFlow™ innovations for further design, development and commercialization of novel products for their use by research and clinical laboratories all around the world.

The duration of the EU-funded EuroFlow™ Project was three years (from the 1st of April 2006 to the 31th of March 2009). Still, the EuroFlow™ consortium has continued and continues working on new approaches for diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of different hematological and immunological disorders, such as those regarding Minimal Residual Disease of some hematological diseases and the diagnosis of Primary Immunodeficiencies.

Cytognos: EuroFlow™ Supporting Company

Within the EuroFlow™ Consortium, Cytognos took the role of developing and exploiting the research results, which finally led to the commercialization of a group of EuroFlow™ products:

Infinicyt™: Innovative software for fast and easy integration of multicolor flow cytometry data. Since 2007 Infinicyt™ has been developed as a revolutionary tool for flow cytometry data analysis with a multidimensional perspective. Its novel approach allows to easily handle large datasets and to integrate them into a single data file, which can be then analyzed using different analysis and interpretation tools.

Infinicyt™ is not limited to a single flow cytometry platform, instrument or model; instead it can be used for the analysis of any type of file coming from different cytometers. Infinicyt reads FCS files from cytometers that follow the FCS standard 2.0, 3.0 and 3.1 as well as LMD standard files.

In 2017 Infinicyt™ 2.0 was released, including access to the EuroFlow™ Databases. The EuroFlow™ Databases comprise normal controls and patient data that is used as reference for automated analysis of samples in Infinicyt™. These analyses are based on the use of several tools and mathematical algorithms (automated pattern recognition, principal component analysis, etc.) developed by Cytognos and EuroFlow™.

Novel fluorochromes: designed and conjugated with different antibodies to complement the EuroFlow™ panels.

• OC515™: Orange Cytognos 515 (OC515) is a dye with similar spectral properties to Pacific Orange™ which emits at 515nm. Other alternative dyes are BD Horizon™ V500, AmCyan or Krome Orange™.
• APC-C750: APC-C750 fluorochrome is a high-quality APC-cyanine tandem for the red diode-laser. This fluorochrome is compatible with any flow cytometer equipped with a red diode-laser and the appropriate filters and detectors.
  APC-C750 can be detected in the same position of some alternative dyes like APC-H7, Alexa Fluor®-750 or APC-Cyanine7.

Pacific Orange™ and Alexa Fluor® are trademarks of Life Technologies Corporation. BD Horizon™ is a trademark of Becton, Dickinson and Company. Krome Orange™ is a trademark of Beckman Coulter Inc.

8-color immunostaining premixed antibody cocktails: Cytognos EuroFlow™ Screening Tubes and EuroFlow™ kits include fluorochromes and antibody clones that have been selected to match the EuroFlow™ standards in relation to stability, brightness, limited spectral overlap and compensation requirements, ensuring the compatibility between results of single antibody use and our premixed combinations.

Besides, Cytognos developed an innovative technique for lyophilization of the premixed antibody cocktails, which led to the launch of the lyophilized EuroFlow™ Screening Tubes and kits, allowing further stability and consistency of results.

The EuroFlow™ antibody panels were designed using antibody combinations that have been carefully adjusted with special combinations of backbone markers and characterization markers for selecting and characterizing the cell populations of interest.

In the most recent years some of these panels are also aimed at the monitoring and follow up of specific diseases such as multiple myeloma or acute leukemia, and other panels designs that are still to be published when relevant results are accomplished.

Quality Control solutions: the development of 8-color antibody reagents together with dedicated tools in Infinicyt™ allowed the creation of the EuroFlow™ Quality Assessment Program (EuroFlow™ QA).

• For more information about the EuroFlow™ QA and registration please visit: http://clip.lf2.cuni.cz/euroflow-qa/

Apart from the development and commercialization of these products at Cytognos we are commitment to the dissemination and spread of all the knowledge and information attained by the EuroFlow™ Consortium.

Cytognos provides qualified, scientific and experience-based support for successful implementation of the EuroFlow™ methodology and Next Generation Flow™ within any flow cytometry laboratory or institution. Feel free to contact us through our online form.