They are CytoBuoy b.v., a Dutch company with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing particle analysis instruments and software for researchers in aquatic science and other disciplines. They are proud that they can put their experience, vision and skills to work on making tools that help scientists pursue important goals such as understanding ecological processes in the environment. The personal contacts with their customers are a source of joy and invaluable for the continuous innovation of their products and services.

History

1986-1992 

Design of a flow cytometer for phytoplankton (the Optical Plankton Analyser) at the Radiobiological Institute of the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and funded by The Netherlands Foundation for Technical Sciences (STW). The instruments were validated by the Dept. of Aquatic Ecology, University of Amsterdam and the National Institute for Coastal and Marine Management, Rijkswaterstaat (RIKZ).

• introduction of extremely large flow cell (1 mm) for a wide range of particles 
• first (hard wired) digital pulse processing for an extreme dynamic range

1992-1995 

This technology was further explored in the 1992 MAST II project EurOPA, funded by the Marine Science and Technology program of the European Commission. The partners in this project pioneered many aspects such as:

• video imaging-in-flow (Max-Planck Institute für Biochemie) 
• digital pulse shapes (RIKZ) 
• azimuthally resolved forward light scatter (Dept. of Physics and Applied Physics, University of Strathclyde) 
• fluid switch sorter with direct sorting on filters (Dubelaar Res. Instr. eng.) 
• neural network analysis (School of biology, Univ. of Wales, College of Cardiff) 
• multivariate statistical methods (Plymouth Marine Laboratory)

1996 - 2000

The CytoBuoy project was also funded by the MAST III Marine Science and Technology program of the European Commission. They pioneered the downsizing of the core (Eur)OPA technology for autonomous and in situ operation. Partners: Datawell b.v., Oceanor s.a., Dubelaar Res. Instr. eng., Pyxilla, Kantakun. 

• introduction of storing of fully digitized pulse shapes 
• invention of recirculating sheath fluid 
• introduction of two stage injector for moving platforms 
• introduction of holographic grating for fluorescence color separation 
• invention of non-gaussian laser intensity profile for high sample flow rates 
• first radio operated flow cytometer in floating buoy

2001 

Founding of CytoBuoy b.v.