We have a Muse Guava flow cytometer in our lab and our undergraduate researcher, Aakriti, has been managing the instrument and is working to test out kits and protocols.

Aakriti’s notebook posts can be found on GitHub here.

Our goal is to use the flow cytometer to develop performance indices in oysters and other organisms.

Instrument QC

We have been struggling with QC for the instrument and the instrument has been performing poorly. After weeks of back and forth with customer service, we sent the instrument in for servicing.

Aakriti tested the System Check Kit for the instrument after it was return and was still getting FAIL status on the QC steps, indicating that something is still wrong.

Today I (attempted to) run another round of the System Check Kit with a brand new batch of kit reagents.

However, I could not run this protocol because the instrument gave me a “check sum fail” message when entering the information for the kit reagents.

I contacted customer service and am waiting to hear back on their solution.

To do

• Work with customer service to resolve the issue or request a replacement instrument [Ariana]
• Label items in the Guava workstation area including the squirt bottle, DI water tubes, etc. so that contents are clearly labeled. [Aakriti]
• Update the protocol to include more explicit details on the system check kit including steps for vortexing/mixing the reagents and bringing the reagents to room temperature. [Aakriti]