Concept for the traceability of fluorescence (beads) in flow cytometry: exploiting saturation and microscopic single molecule bleaching.

We have determined the fluorescence yield of stained micro beads, used for calibration purposes in flow cytometry, as function of the irradiance of the exciting laser beam. A rate equation model has been applied to derive the number of fluorescence molecules carried by each micro bead. To derive in situ photo-physical properties of the specific dye, required for the rate equation model, we discuss an approach based on flow cytometric sorting of micro beads, which have passed two laser beams with properly chosen different irradiances, and subsequent observation of single molecule bleaching employing high sensitivity microscopy. The feasibility of our approach is demonstrated presenting first results concerning saturation of fluorescence of beads in flow and single molecule bleaching by high sensitivity microscopy.