A micro flow cytometry system for study of marine phytoplankton from costal waters of Hong Kong

Although conventional flow cytometers (CFCs) have been widely used for study of marine biology, most CFCs are too bulky to be used for field study in ocean and have corrosion problem due to salty samples. A new computer-controlled micro flow cytometer (MFC) system has been successfully developed using MEMS technology. We demonstrate that this new MFC can analyze mixture of two species of marine phytoplankton: Chlorella autotrophica and Rhodomonas. The results from our MFC are consistent with those from digital fluorescence microscopy.