Blog – The More, The Better: The Rise of High-Parameter Flow Cytometry Assays
Flow cytometry is driven by technological innovation.
Amber Baele, Scientist Associate, outlines key trends shaping its future.
Flow Cytometry Designed For Complexity, Built For Clarity
From early biomarker strategy to final reporting, we partner with you to generate robust, decision-ready data tailored to your study.
Flow cytometry plays a critical role in understanding immune response, mechanism of action, and patient variability in today’s clinical trials.
As studies become more complex, the challenge is no longer just generating data but ensuring that data is robust, reproducible, and directly relevant to your study objectives.
At Cerba Research, we work with you to translate complex immunological questions into clear, actionable data. With over 25 years of experience supporting flow cytometry in clinical trials from preclinical through phase III, we design solutions that align directly with your study endpoints, timelines, and regulatory requirements.
We develop and deliver customized flow cytometry strategies to monitor:
- Immunophenotyping across diverse cell populations
- Immune cell activation and functional responses
- Drug receptor occupancy and pharmacodynamic effects
- CAR-T cell persistence and characterization
We engage early to understand your protocol, risks, and objectives so we can design assays and workflows that support reliable, decision-ready data. This means you gain not just results, but confidence in how those results support your trial decisions.
Why choose us to support your trial?
Our flow cytometry capabilities
Flow cytometry assay development
We design and develop flow cytometry assays that directly support your clinical and translational objectives. Whether you are exploring novel biomarkers or validating established panels, we ensure every assay is fit for purpose and aligned to your protocol.
Our team works with you to:
- Define biomarker strategies based on mechanism of action and
study goals - Select and optimize markers for sensitivity, specificity,
and reproducibility - Develop high-quality multicolor panels, including
high-parameter designs - Validate assays in line with regulatory expectations and
study requirements
We integrate expertise from panel design, biomarker selection, and assay validation into a single, streamlined process. This reduces risk, shortens timelines, and ensures consistency from development through to sample analysis.
Our capabilities include:
- Immunophenotyping panels across oncology, immunology, and infectious disease
- Functional assays to assess cell activation and response
- Receptor occupancy and pharmacodynamic marker analysis
- Support for complex cell therapies, including CAR-T monitoring.
We focus on delivering assays that are not only scientifically robust but also operationally practical within your trial.
Flow cytometry reporting
Flow cytometry generates highly complex, high-dimensional data. We ensure that data is processed, analyzed, and presented in a way that supports confident, timely decisions.
Our reporting approach combines:
- Standardized and reproducible gating strategies
- Advanced data analysis methods for high-parameter datasets
- Consistent quality control and data review processes
- Clear, structured outputs aligned to your study endpoints
We work with you to define how data should be visualized and delivered, ensuring outputs are meaningful for clinical, scientific, and regulatory stakeholders.
You receive:
- Interpretable datasets that align with your protocol objectives
- Rapid access to analyzed data for ongoing study monitoring
- Scientific input to contextualize findings and highlight trends
As your study evolves, we adapt reporting strategies to ensure your data continues to deliver value.
Advancing flow cytometry insights through AI-enabled analytics
We have partnered with Ozette to enhance the analysis and interpretation of your high-dimensional flow cytometry data generated across clinical and translational studies.
With Ozette’s AI-enabled spectral flow cytometry analytics platform, we enable more standardized, reproducible, and scalable analysis of complex immune datasets across studies, sites, and therapeutic areas.
By integrating advanced analytical tools into our flow cytometry workflows, we help ensure that your high-parameter data is not only generated consistently but also translated into clear, actionable insights that support confident decision-making in clinical development.
Our locations and technologies
Global labs and Centers of Excellence (CoEs) for flow cytometry
Our global laboratory network supports flow cytometry testing across multiple regions, ensuring consistent processes, standardized quality, and reliable turnaround times.
Our flow cytometry labs are in:
Ghent, Belgium
New York, United States
Sydney, Australia
Taipei, Taiwan
Shanghai, China
Technologies supporting flow cytometry
We use advanced flow cytometry platforms to support increasingly complex study requirements, including high-parameter and spectral cytometry.
Conventional flow cytometry (BD FACSLyric™)
Spectral flow cytometry (Cytek® Aurora)
AI‑driven analytics for flow cytometry (Ozette)
Flow cytometry data analysis software (FCS Express™)
Whitepaper – CAR+T Drug Development: The Critical Role of Flow Cytometry
With the breakthrough of cellular immune therapies such as CAR+T cell therapy, flow cytometry became a critical platform not only for clinical laboratories but also for drug developers and manufacturers.
In this whitepaper, our experts dive deeper into key elements of flow cytometry, including:
- The importance of flow cytometry in CAR+T clinical research and its uses
- Key aspects in developing a CAR+T trial
- The added value of flow cytometry in multiple myeloma, minimal residual disease (MRD) assessments, and multiple myeloma phenotype
- CAR+T-cell therapy patient treatments, targeted antigens and solutions for MRD assessments, and multiple myeloma phenotype assessments
Explore more flow cytometry content
Blog – Understanding Autoimmunity: How Flow Cytometry Advances Trials
Matthias De Decker, Senior Scientist, explores the role of flow cytometry in clinical studies of autoimmune diseases.
