FlowCytoNews
Flow cytometry, gated weekly.
ISSUE #4 · FRIDAY EDITION · INDUSTRY MOVES · OCT 16, 2026
Welcome to the Friday edition of FlowCytoNews. Friday is Industry Moves: what instrument, reagent, CRO, CDMO and cell-therapy companies did this week, with the primary source linked and every job opened before it ran. Monday is The Literature and Wednesday is On the Calendar. This week an in vivo CAR-T got its US IND, Labcorp bought most of BioReference for $722M, and Agilent bought into digital pathology. Tell us what we missed — hit reply.
■ Industry Moves
Instruments & software
Agilent is buying Proscia for $240M to add AI digital pathology
Agilent agreed to acquire Proscia, an AI digital-pathology software company, in an "all-cash transaction valued at $240 million in cash at closing," with "up to an additional $30 million based on achieving future performance milestones." Closing is expected "early in Agilent's fiscal year 2027," which begins in November. CEO Padraig McDonnell said "Digital pathology is quickly becoming the foundation for pathology data generation, analysis, and application."
▪ Agilent · Oct 13 · Business Wire release
Why it matters: Agilent already sells the NovoCyte analyzers and, since Oct 1, the NovoStation prep system. With Proscia it owns software in the pathology lab next door; watch whether flow data ends up in the same reporting layer.
Quick hits — instruments & software
Bio-Rad reports Q3 on Wed Nov 4 after the close, with the call at 5:00 pm ET. Business Wire
No news in the window from Cytek, Waters/BD, Beckman Coulter, Thermo Fisher flow, Sony, Miltenyi, Sartorius, Sysmex, Standard BioTools or the analysis-software companies. Danaher (Beckman) and Thermo Fisher both report Q3 on Oct 21.
Reagents & controls
No flow-reagent or control launches in the window from BioLegend/Revvity, BD Horizon, Thermo eBioscience, Bio-Techne, Biotium, Cell Signaling, Abcam or the bead makers. Revvity reports Q3 on Tue Nov 3 before the open.
Biopharma, CROs & CDMOs
Legend's in vivo CD19/CD20 CAR-T cleared FDA, and it will be tested without lymphodepletion
Legend Biotech announced on Oct 15 that the FDA cleared its IND for LB2501, an in vivo CD19/CD20 CAR-T. The US Phase 1/2 trial "will evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary efficacy" in relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies, including B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and "The therapy is being evaluated without lymphodepleting chemotherapy." A Phase 1 study is already running in China (NCT07002112). CEO Ingrid Zhang said in vivo CAR-T "represents the next frontier of cell therapy."
▪ Legend Biotech · Oct 15 · GlobeNewswire release
Why it matters: With no manufactured product, there is no release-testing flow panel. Everything shifts to the patient: CAR detection in blood, B-cell depletion, and pharmacokinetics measured by flow. Labs supporting these trials need CAR-detection reagents validated in whole blood, at low frequencies, without a lymphodepleted background.
Labcorp is buying most of BioReference for $722M
Labcorp agreed on Oct 15 to buy selected assets of BioReference Health from OPKO for "$722 million in cash at closing," plus "up to an additional $150 million in an earnout based on revenue from the 4Kscore Test." The deal covers clinical and women's health, urology and corrections testing, and more than 80 patient service centers. Labcorp expects "approximately $250 million" in revenue in the first year after closing. Closing timing was not given; the deal needs regulatory approval. The release does not mention oncology or flow cytometry.
▪ Labcorp · Oct 15 · PR Newswire release
A $2.5M state grant will pair high-dimensional flow with cell-pair sequencing to define CAR-T potency
Partillion Bioscience said on Oct 14 that its Nanovials will support a "$2.5 million" California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Discovery Award led by Mohamed Abou-el-Enein at USC's Keck School of Medicine. The study combines "high-dimensional flow cytometry with Nanovial-based Cell-Cell-seq" to link CAR-T cell interactions with function; Abou-el-Enein described the aim as "a CAR T-cell atlas that could provide new insights into potency." Partillion CEO Joseph de Rutte said: "We see cell-cell interactions as an important next frontier for functional cell analysis."
▪ Partillion Bioscience · Oct 14 · Release (BioSpace)
Quick hits — biopharma, CROs & CDMOs
Lakefront (formerly Galapagos) sold its preclinical CAR-T programs to Armed Cell Therapeutics for "an upfront payment of €8 million and the potential for up to $230 million in milestone payments," plus "a low-single-digit royalty." Lakefront says its cell-therapy wind-down "is substantially complete." GlobeNewswire, Oct 14
ISCT, EBMT and JACIE published updated international recommendations on CAR-T for severe refractory autoimmune disease in The Lancet Rheumatology, covering rheumatic, neurological and hematological conditions. ISCT release, Oct 15 · Lancet Rheumatology
Johnson & Johnson raised 2026 sales guidance to $101.0–101.4B after Q3 sales of $25.4B, up 5.9%, and named CARVYKTI among its growth drivers. J&J release, Oct 13
Hiring — biopharma, cores & clinical labs
Company | Role | Location · pay |
|---|---|---|
Legend Biotech | Somerset, NJ · $146,410–192,164 | |
Thermo Fisher Scientific | Collegeville, PA (client site) · pay not shown | |
Axle | Bethesda, MD · $70–80K | |
Memorial Sloan Kettering | New York · $47.23–75.59/hr | |
Beth Israel Deaconess | Boston · $46.00–61.91/hr | |
Children's National | Washington, DC · pay not shown | |
PathGroup | Nashville · pay not shown |
■ Bench Notes
Transferring a flow assay to a CRO or reference lab: what to agree before the first sample
Two weeks of partnerships (CellCarta with Waters) and consolidation (Labcorp and BioReference) mean more sponsor assays changing hands. A flow method transfer fails on details nobody wrote down. Agree these in writing:
The acceptance criteria, before any data. Define the comparison: same samples run in both labs, which statistic (bias, Bland–Altman limits, %CV), and what counts as a pass. CLSI H62 (Validation of Assays Performed by Flow Cytometry, 2021) is the reference for validation and method-comparison design.
Instrument setup to targets. Exchange the bead target values and the daily QC acceptance range, not only the panel. Standardized setup is what made EuroFlow data portable between labs (Kalina et al., Leukemia 2012, 10.1038/leu.2012.122).
The gating template and its rules. Send the template file and a written description of each gate decision, including how to handle dim and smeared populations.
Reagent ownership. Name who buys each antibody, how lots are bridged, and what happens to the data if a clone is discontinued.
Raw-data rights. Make sure the contract gives you the FCS files and their metadata (Lee et al., Cytometry A 2008, 10.1002/cyto.a.20623), not only a results table.
What did we miss? Hit reply — corrections run at the top of the next edition. If a colleague is running a cell-therapy trial, forward this to them.
— Josh