MoFlo® Astrios™ by Beckman Coulter Life Sciences

"Easy-to-use system with reliable data and reproducible results. Great cell health and purity."

"Very rapid cell sorting and gentle on cells - great viability post-sorting. The instrument breaks down far too frequently though and requires service almost every month. Service offered has been sub-par."

"We have a 4-laser MoFlo ASTRIOS, not EQ option. Summit v6.3. We have lots of issues of instability with the instrument, sensitivity and purity compared to our other two cell sorters is worse. It maybe just our instrument but we are not satisfied with the way it works. Many things are supposedly to be automatically but don't work, continuously we got error messages of not been able to complete QC, to calculate time delays, etc and in many cases don't seem to be real. Error cannot calculate time delays, you pass rainbow beads afterwards and you see perfectly your 6 or 8 peaks with good CV's. Intellisort is anything but intelligent, doesn't seem to be able to keep up with BOP, not error or obvious instability can be found by looking at the image from the stream and droplet cameras. We have an InFlux and a FACS ARIA IIu, have used an old MoFlo for years so it is not a question that we don't know how to use a sorter. This one is just playing all the time. We have mentioned to the company but we don't really get a solution, their suggestions so far was to change nozzle tips as ours were damaged but new tips behave the same as expected. This instrument was launched to the market without been fully prepared for use, obviously new versions perform better so the company who should be aware of this (and certainly is) should offer replacements/upgrades of this non behaving instruments. AutoComp is another function that does not seem to work, generates very odd compensation matrices with over 50% compensation between 530/30- Blue and 585/42-Blue channels with standard voltages and markers such CD8 FITC, CD4 PE in mouse thymus and spleen tissue samples. My staff is a bit frustrated with the sorter, as they never know how will behave so it is reaching the point where no one wish to use it!"

"It is excellent in cell sorting for its high sorting speed."

"MoFlo Astrios makes sorting of cells more simple than ever. Despite high cost of the device it gives amazing opportunities for high yield sorting at highest speed compared to other cell sorters available on the marker. Taking together profitability of investment in MoFlo astrios resulting from simplicity of setting up, maintaining and performance even when sorting rare events, I would highly recommend it to everyone looking for the best sorter on the market."

"I have had a MoFlo Astrios in my core facility since the beginning of 2013. It is a 7 laser 24 color instrument in a Class 2 biosafety hood. As with any new technology we had a short period with variable results, after that we have found the instrument to be reliable. I have two staff in the flow core who use and manage this instrument, our newest staff member, who had no cell sorting experience was able to independently operate the Astrios within 4 weeks. Providing researchers can give us a good, appropriately stained sample we are confident in returning an excellent sort result. "