Mass Cytometry Initiative

Mass cytometry is a powerful technology for the high-throughput analysis of single cells and represents the next generation of flow cytometry. This technique can measure up to 34 molecular targets (proteins) per cell, which makes it possible to identify different cell subtypes, changes in status during maturation, differentiation, cellular senescence, or degradation, as well as different response to drug treatments.

Similar to flow cytometry, which uses fluorescently labeled antibodies to tag molecular targets in cells, mass cytometry uses antibodies tagged with stable metal isotopes. Each antibody used has a unique metal tag. The instrument allows for collection of one mass spectrum per cell. Each mass spectrum includes ions for the metal tags present in the cell that originated the spectrum. Each ion signature indicates the abundance of the corresponding molecular target. The resulting data sets contain up to 34 parameters per cell, which provides the most comprehensive description of heterogeneity at the single cell level. This technique has been used to study cellular senescence, or degradation, as well as different response to drug treatments.