Single cell cytology by flow cytometry has many applications from blood cell analysis to cancer diagnosis. However, the ability to make multiple measurements per cell can be limited by the brief analysis times available in flow cytometry. Rare populations with small cell number are also difficult to analyze. We propose to demonstrate the use of quadrupole traps for single cell analysis and manipulation. These electrodynamic traps can hold a cell for an infinite time and have the potential to enable high-resolution, high-sensitivity fluorescence measurements of several cell parameters concurrently. The trap technique is also compatible with studies of small quantities (100's) of cells. We will demonstrate several cytological measurement techniques in the trap. This will illustrate the possible complementary of quadrupole trap analyses with flow cytometry approaches for cell analysis and manipulation.
