NovaFluor Dyes for Immunophenotyping

NovaFluor dyes are built using Phiton™ technology. This is a macrostructure labeled with small-molecule fluorophores. Unique fluorescent signatures are created to avoid cross-excitation between laser lines, a common problem with conventional labels, while the emission profiles are designed to avoid spectral spill over into other channels. These unique properties simplify high-dimensional panel design by unlocking previously unusable channels in current instrumentation and delivering higher resolution data for cleaner single-cell analysis and separation.

The Phiton structure lends stability, thus the NovaFluor dyes retain fluorescence intensity and spectral signature at long-term 4°C storage after staining and fixation.

NovaFluor dyes can be used in flow cytometry and imaging applications by themselves or with other dyes. NovaFluor dyes offer great utility in the replacement of dyes that are excited by multiple lasers and that also spillover to multiple detectors. For example, PE-eFluor 610 dye is excited by both the blue and yellow laser and therefore, when emitting signal, will be collected in associated detectors. Replacing PE-eFluor 610 dye with NovaFluor Blue 610 and NovaFluor Yellow 610 minimizes spillover into associated detectors. This allows for one additional marker. Detectors that may previously have gone unused can detect NovaFluor dyes because of the narrow excitation and tighter emission spectra.

NovaFluor dyes are incompatible with nucleic acid binding dyes including PI, 7AAD, DAPI, and cell-permeant dyes DyeCycle dyes and SYTOX dead cell stains. LIVE/DEAD Fixable dead cell stains should be used for viability analysis.

Brightness is helpful when looking for dimly expressed antigens.Employing fluorophores that exhibit varying levels of brightness is advantageous for experiments involving multiple markers, as this allows for better signal resolution. Below is an example of swapping a bright, cross-excited dye for two spectrally cleaner dyes to allow accommodation of one more marker. 

Typical channel distribution of an 11-color panel involving traditional dyes compared to a 13-color panel achieved by incorporating NovaFluor dyes. Dyes were replaced or added based on Table 1 and examining excitation/emission spectra. 

Use the table below (Table 1) to choose the best fluorophore for an experiment. The labels are compared in terms of brightness (separation index) and spread. For example, low-abundance antigens should be matched with a higher separation index. Alternatively, if the goal is to use multiple dyes, spectral cleanliness is important in order to minimize spread and maximize resolution of multiple markers.  Key: yellow = brighter dye; dark blue = dimmer dye.  

Table 1. Nonexclusive list of fluorophores with spread and separation index values. Fluorescent labels for flow cytometry, including spectral spread (calculated as the sum of spectral spread added to all non-primary channels) and separation index (as a measure of brightness, measured using anti-human CD4-SK3 for all fluorescent labels). All measurements were taken on a 5-laser Cytek Aurora.