Hana Cell Sorter and Single Cell Dispenser

How does the Hana Cell Sorter and Single Cell Dispenser compare to traditional FACS and limited dilution with sensitive cell lines?

The Hana system is gentle and uses very low pressure (<2 psi) for cell sorting. In contrast, conventional FACS instruments use relatively high pressures (30-70 psi), which can be damaging for sensitive cells, resulting in reduced cell viability. The figure on the left shows a comparison of cellular stress response genes between cells isolated using a FACS instrument vs. using Bio-Techne's gentle cell sorting technology. Cells sorted with a FACS instrument showed induction of cellular stress response genes such as Ubiquitin C (Ubc), while cells sorted using Bio-Techne's technology show much lower expression of stress response genes. Limited dilution, on the other hand, is a gentle technique but does not yield high rates of single cell clones and has no fluorescence sorting capabilities resulting in laborious screening and high experimental failure rates.