FlowCytoNews
Flow cytometry, gated weekly.
ISSUE #2 · FRIDAY EDITION · INDUSTRY MOVES · OCT 2, 2026
Welcome to the Friday edition of FlowCytoNews. Friday is Industry Moves: what instrument, reagent, CRO, CDMO and cell-therapy companies did in the last two weeks, with the primary source linked and every job opened this week. Monday is The Literature (papers and preprints) and Wednesday is On the Calendar (meetings, courses, deadlines). This week the mass cytometry business changed buyers, two vendors shipped workflow products for ICCS, and CMS put a number on next year's lab-fee cuts. Tell us what we missed — hit reply.
■ Industry Moves
Instruments & software
CyTOF and Hyperion are going to a venture firm's new company, not Multiplex Bio
Standard BioTools said on Sep 30 that its agreement to sell the mass cytometry business to Multiplex Bio was "terminated by mutual agreement" and that the business will instead go to Element Biosystems, LLC, "formed by GMT Venture Partners, LLC," for "$5.5 million payable at closing, subject to customary adjustments." The company says the switch improves its net cash by "approximately $15 million" against the Multiplex structure, which had required a $10M working-capital loan from the seller; GMT's unsolicited proposal arrived on Aug 29. Element "will work closely with Core Quantum Technologies, Inc.," and GMT founder Tom Claugus said, "We believe deeply in the long-term potential of the CyTOF and Hyperion platforms." Closing is expected by the end of 2026, substantially concurrently with the Treeline transaction and subject to stockholder approval; CEO Michael Egholm spoke of "ensuring continuity for our Mass Cytometry customers and team."
▪ Standard BioTools · Sep 30 · GlobeNewswire release · 8-K Exhibit 99.1
Why it matters: If you run a Helios, XT or Hyperion, the party that owes you service, software updates and reagent supply has changed twice on paper since July. Get the post-closing obligations in writing before you renew a service contract.
Standard BioTools is hiring: no flow or mass cytometry roles found this week.
Agilent put the staining bench in a box in front of the NovoCyte
Agilent introduced the NovoStation Sample Preparation System on Oct 1, timed for its unveiling at ICCS 2026 in Miami (Oct 2–6). NovoStation "automates onboard reagent cocktailing and sample washing" and hands samples to the NovoCyte analyzer under NovoExpress software. Agilent's validation examples: a 25-color immunophenotyping workflow on 30 samples took "7.9 minutes of operator time compared with 85.5 minutes manually," and a kappa/lambda light-chain assay dropped "from 89.4 minutes to 6.8 minutes," which the company rounds to "more than 90%" less hands-on time. Price, capacity and shipping date are not in the release. Knut Wintergerst, VP and GM of the Cell and Biomolecular Analysis Division, is the quoted executive.
▪ Agilent · Oct 1 · Business Wire release (syndicated)
Why it matters: Sample prep is where clinical flow labs lose technologist hours and introduce variability. Agilent is the third vendor this year to pair an automated prep unit with its own analyzer, after Sysmex's PS-10 pairing with Cytek and BD's autoloader on the A7; the question for ICCS attendees is whether it runs other vendors' reagents.
Agilent is hiring: no flow cytometry roles found this week.
Cytek moved analysis into the cloud and tightened its bylaws in the same week
Cytek Biosciences added a Cloud Analysis tool to Cytek Cloud on Sep 23 and introduced three tiers: Basic (free core tools), Pro (adds the SpectroPanel algorithm and Experiment Builder) and Premium (Pro plus Cloud Analysis and online storage). Experiments import "directly from SpectroFlo desktop software" with worksheets, plots and gates intact; "Cloud Analysis and Premium tier are currently available in the U.S. only." Cytek says the platform has "over 28,000 users" with "double-digit year-over-year growth" since 2022; prices for Pro and Premium are not disclosed. Separately, an 8-K filed Sep 29 reports that the board adopted amended and restated bylaws on Sep 23 that "incorporate the universal proxy rules in Rule 14a-19" and add advance-notice and chairperson-disqualification procedures for director nominations at special meetings.
▪ Cytek · Sep 23 and Sep 29 · GlobeNewswire release · 8-K on EDGAR
Why it matters: Cloud analysis bound to one vendor's acquisition software is a data-governance question for cores before it is a convenience: ask where the FCS files live and who can export them. The bylaw change is routine housekeeping on its face, but it lands a month after the $56M Beckman verdict and is the kind of thing a company does before a contested proxy season.
Cytek is hiring: Field Applications Specialist II (Fremont, CA; field role, pay not shown) · Field Service Engineer, Minnesota ($39–49/hr for FSE II; $34–42/hr for FSE I). Cytek jobs on ZipRecruiter
Quick hits — instruments & software
Teiko launched "configurable" clinical immune-monitoring assays on Oct 1: "12,000+" pre-validated configurations, standard panels run "in days," custom markers "in weeks, not months," pricing "mid-hundreds per sample," "more than 120 custom-validated clones" in a CLIA-certified lab. The post does not say whether the platform is spectral flow or CyTOF. Teiko news
R&D World mined NIH shared-instrumentation awards, USAspending records and tenders ("of about 2,400 records reviewed, 154 awards and grants name a model") and found the middle half of recorded prices for the three spectral sorters with price data — Cytek Aurora CS, Invitrogen Bigfoot Spectral and BD FACSDiscover S8 — falls between about $550K and $765K, against $410–536K for a BD FACSAria Fusion. Useful for the budget-justification page of an S10. R&D World, Sep 24
Beckman Coulter Life Sciences is hiring: Field Application Scientist - Flow Cytometry - 85% Travel (Minneapolis preferred; MN/SD/ND/WI/IA; $85–100K + bonus) link · Flow Cytometry Sales Representative (Philadelphia; NJ/PA; base $95–105K, total target $184.9–194.9K) link · Global Product Manager – Flow Cytometry Routine IVD Assays (remote; pay not shown) link · Field Application Specialist – Flow Cytometry/Hematology (Johannesburg or Centurion, South Africa; pay not shown) link
Nomic Bio is hiring: Flow Cytometry Systems Engineer (Greater Boston / Montreal; >50% travel; pay not shown) — an in-house FAS/FSE for the cytometer fleet behind its nELISA bead assays. link
No news in the window from Thermo Fisher (Attune/Bigfoot), Bio-Rad, Miltenyi, Sartorius, Sony or the software houses (FlowJo, FCS Express/OMIQ, Cytobank); FlowJo's latest posted release remains v11.1.1 (Feb 24).
Reagents & controls
Bio-Techne shareholders waved through the $11.3B Merck KGaA deal
Bio-Techne shareholders approved the merger agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, at a special meeting on Sep 23, and the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period expired on Sep 18; the company expects to close "by late 2026 or early 2027," subject to remaining regulatory approvals. The terms, from Merck's Jun 25 announcement: "US$73 per share in cash," an enterprise value of "US$11.3 billion (EUR 9.9 billion)" and a "36% premium to Bio-Techne's one-month volume weighted average trading price." Merck positions the deal around cell therapy supply — "cytokines, growth factors, antibodies, and immunoassay kits." Nothing in either release addresses flow cytometry catalogs or pricing.
▪ Bio-Techne · Sep 23 · PR Newswire · Merck KGaA announcement, Jun 25
Why it matters: Bio-Techne's R&D Systems and Novus antibodies sit on a lot of panel spreadsheets. Post-close, expect catalog consolidation with Merck's MilliporeSigma lines; lock clone and conjugate part numbers into your validation records now.
Bio-Techne is hiring: no flow cytometry roles found this week.
Slingshot Biosciences named its COO as CEO
Slingshot Biosciences appointed Nimisha Srivastava, previously Chief Operating Officer, as CEO effective Sep 23, succeeding Glenn Bilawsky. Srivastava was "a member of the founding engineering team at Twist Bioscience," where the release says she led scale-up of synthetic DNA and RNA production; board chair Nicolas Barthelemy cited her "deep understanding of our technology, customers, people, and business." The Emeryville, CA company makes cell-mimic controls for flow cytometry.
▪ Slingshot Biosciences · Sep 25 · PR Newswire
Slingshot is hiring: no postings found this week.
Quick hits — reagents & controls
A quiet fortnight for reagent launches: nothing in the window from BioLegend, BD Horizon, Thermo eBioscience, Bio-Rad, Biotium, Cell Signaling, Abcam, Spherotech or Bangs. The newest items on file are Bio-Rad's StarBright TrailBlazer kit expansion (May 13) and Thermo's UltraComp eBeads Spectral Unmixing Beads (Sep 2025).
BioLegend (Revvity) is hiring: Quality Control Associate II, Flow Cytometry (PM shift) (San Diego; $23.55–31.50/hr) link
BD Biosciences is hiring: Flow Cytometry Research Reagent Sales Specialist (Woburn/Andover/Lexington/Marlborough, MA; pay listed as "competitive") — the posting dates from Oct 2025 but still shows an Apply button. link
Biopharma, CROs & CDMOs
CMS wants to cut Medicare lab fees about 16% next year, 15% a year at most
CMS posted preliminary CY2027 Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule rates on Sep 21, the first PAMA repricing in years. The rates use private-payor data from "January 1, 2025 – June 30, 2025," cover 1,947 codes of which "1,528 (78.5%)" have a weighted median, and come out "~16% lower" in aggregate than CY2026; by statute "payment for a test may not be reduced by more than 15% per year" through 2029. Comments are due before Oct 21 and final rates come in November. Labcorp filed an 8-K the next day saying the rates "would impose steep annual payment cuts that threaten patient access to laboratory services" and rest on data "not fully representative of the broader commercial laboratory market," while reaffirming its 2026–2029 targets (5–8% revenue CAGR, 75–150 bp adjusted operating-margin expansion, 8.5–11.5% adjusted EPS CAGR). The AHA is backing the RESULTS Act (H.R. 5269 / S. 2761) to block the cuts.
▪ CMS · Sep 21 · CMS fact sheet · Labcorp 8-K, Sep 22 · AHA, Sep 22
Why it matters: Flow codes 88184–88189 and the T-cell subset codes are in the file. Whether your leukemia/lymphoma panel reimbursement falls 2% or 15% in January is a lookup, not a guess — Bench Notes below walks through it.
Labcorp is hiring: Manager, Flow Cytometry Laboratory (Indianapolis; pay not shown; $10K sign-on bonus) link
Half of CARTITUDE-2's Cohort A is still in remission five years after one CARVYKTI infusion
Legend Biotech presented five-year follow-up of CARTITUDE-2 Cohort A (n = 20, relapsed/refractory myeloma after one to three prior lines) at the International Myeloma Society meeting in Glasgow on Sep 25: at a median follow-up of 60.7 months, "10 of 20 patients (50%) remained alive and progression-free without further anti-myeloma treatment ≥5 years," median PFS was 60.5 months, five-year OS 69.2%, and median OS was not reached; no new CAR-T-related neurotoxicity was reported since the 30-month analysis, though the release notes one new AML case and two deaths in extended follow-up. Legend also named Ingrid Zhang, formerly Chief Commercial Officer at Novartis International, as CEO effective Sep 15; Alan Bash, interim CEO since July, returns to President, CARVYKTI.
▪ Legend Biotech · Sep 25 and Sep 15 · CARTITUDE-2 release · CEO appointment
Why it matters: Treatment-free remissions this long are why sponsors keep asking flow labs for 10⁻⁶ MRD and CAR-T persistence assays at year three and beyond. Plan sample-banking and panel-stability for five-year follow-up, not two.
Iovance raised its year by $55M on Amtagvi demand
Iovance Biotherapeutics raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance on Sep 29 to "$410 to $420 million" from "$350 to $370 million," a "$55 million" increase at the midpoint, citing U.S. demand for Amtagvi (lifileucel) and Proleukin after record Q2 product revenue of "$99.3 million." The authorized-treatment-center network stands at about 100 and is to reach "at least 110" by year-end.
▪ Iovance · Sep 29 · Release (Yahoo Finance syndication)
Why it matters: TIL therapy is the heaviest flow user in commercial cell therapy — identity, purity and viability on every lot. A 60% revenue year at Iovance is a QC-flow hiring signal in Philadelphia and at its CDMOs.
Quick hits — biopharma, CROs & CDMOs
Minaris reorganized into three units effective Oct 1 — Minaris Cell Therapies (Luciana Mansolelli), Minaris Viral Vectors (Eytan Abraham) and Minaris Advanced Testing (Ilya Koltover) — under CEO Orla Cloak. PR Newswire, Sep 29
Kyverna reported one-year miv-cel data on Sep 24: in stiff-person syndrome (KYSA-8, 26 patients) a "49%" median improvement in timed 25-foot walk at month 12, 8 of 12 walking-aid users no longer needing them, "92%" free of chronic immunotherapies; in generalized myasthenia gravis (KYSA-6, 7 patients) "100%" with clinically meaningful improvement at 24 weeks; "No high-grade CRS or ICANS, and no cases of IEC-HS." Rolling BLA for SPS to complete in Q4. Release
Link Cell Therapies upsized its Series A from $60M to $90M with a $30M extension led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and initiated clinical dosing of logic-gated CAR-T LNK001 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma at MD Anderson. PR Newswire, Sep 28
Charles River told its Sep 24 investor day that bioanalysis revenue will "grow organically at a high-single-digit CAGR to approximately $450 million in 2030," within 5–7% organic growth and a ~24% non-GAAP operating margin for 2027–2030. No flow-specific commentary. Release
CellCarta expanded its collaboration with Imagene AI on AI-driven biomarker and companion-diagnostic programs (IHC and H&E image models; two unnamed pharma clients; terms undisclosed). No flow component. PR Newswire, Oct 1
NeoGenomics at the Morgan Stanley conference on Sep 15: NGS revenue up "26%" in H1, NGS at "over $250 million" annualized, RaDaR ST MRD coverage gained in August for immunotherapy indications. Nothing said about flow or heme volumes. Transcript summary
Quiet in the window: Kite/Gilead (anito-cel PDUFA remains Dec 23), BMS and Novartis cell therapy, Autolus, Arcellx, Allogene, Sana, Caribou, CRISPR/Vertex, Moderna, Lonza, Catalent, WuXi, Samsung Biologics, Resilience; ICON, Q2 Solutions, KCAS, Eurofins, Precision for Medicine, BioAgilytix, Frontage, Medpace, Altasciences; ARUP, Mayo Clinic Labs, Quest. No new FDA action on MRD endpoints.
Hiring — CROs, CDMOs & lab services
Company | Role | Location · pay |
|---|---|---|
KCAS Bio | Lyon, France · not shown | |
IQVIA Laboratories | Valencia, CA · $64.2–133.6K | |
IQVIA Laboratories | Singapore · not shown | |
IQVIA Laboratories | Koto-ku, Tokyo · not shown | |
Precision for Medicine | Frederick, MD · $110.7–166.1K | |
Precision for Medicine | Frederick, MD · $89–127.5K | |
Eurofins PSS | Boston, MA · $35–41/hr | |
Frontage Laboratories | Exton, PA · not shown | |
PerkinElmer OneSource | Boston, MA · $105–125K |
Hiring — biopharma & cell therapy
Company | Role | Location · pay |
|---|---|---|
Bristol Myers Squibb | Devens, MA · $36.90–44.71/hr | |
Moderna | Norwood, MA · $74–118.4K | |
Gilead Sciences | Foster City, CA · $117.9–152.6K | |
Genentech | South San Francisco, CA · $103.4–192K | |
AstraZeneca | Shanghai, China · not shown |
Hiring — cores, hospitals & clinical labs
Company | Role | Location · pay |
|---|---|---|
Beth Israel Deaconess | Boston, MA · $46–61.91/hr | |
Harvard Medical School | Boston, MA · grade 053, range not shown | |
University of Chicago | Chicago, IL · $60–80K | |
Mayo Clinic | Rochester, MN · $67.5–101.2K | |
St. Jude | Memphis, TN · $125.8–238.2K | |
USC Keck | Los Angeles, CA · $34.32–36.05/hr | |
Quest Diagnostics | Lewisville, TX · from $29.50/hr | |
UAMS | Little Rock, AR · not shown | |
Labcorp | Indianapolis, IN · not shown; $10K sign-on |
ICYMI
Waters / BD Biosciences made the BD FACSDiscover A7 commercially available worldwide on Sep 14: "up to five lasers and 78 fluorescence detectors," more than 50 parameters per cell, and a claimed "less than 10% coefficient of variation across a palette of more than 50 dyes"; price not disclosed. Release
Labcorp acquired MLM Medical Labs, a central lab with operations in the US, Germany and South Africa, announced Sep 8; "financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed." MedTech Dive
Autolus received FDA Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designation for obe-cel in systemic lupus erythematosus and lupus nephritis on Sep 9 — one of the few autoimmune CAR-T programs moving forward while Novartis and BMS pause theirs. GlobeNewswire, Sep 9
■ Bench Notes
Look up your own flow codes in the CMS preliminary CY2027 rate file before the Oct 21 comment deadline
The headline "~16% lower" from CMS is an aggregate across 1,947 codes; the number that matters to a clinical flow lab is the proposed rate for each code it bills. CMS has published the full preliminary file, and you can get your answer in under an hour:
Download the file. CMS links the "CY 2027 Preliminary Weighted Median 2027 CLFS Rate Calculations (Raw vs Trimmed Rates)" ZIP from its PAMA regulations page: direct ZIP; the fact sheet with the methodology is here.
Filter for the flow codes. Immunophenotyping by flow: 88184 (first marker), 88185 (each additional marker), 88187–88189 (interpretation, 2–8, 9–15, 16+ markers); T-cell and B-cell subset enumeration: 86355, 86356, 86357, 86359, 86360, 86361; stem cell (CD34) count: 86367; DNA ploidy by flow: 88182. Add your lab's own panel codes from your chargemaster.
Compare three columns per code: the CY2026 rate, the preliminary CY2027 weighted median, and the capped rate (the 15% per-year reduction limit applies in 2027, 2028 and 2029, so a code whose median fell 40% drops 15% a year, not 40% at once). Record the "trimmed" rate, which is what CMS proposes to use.
Model the volume effect. Multiply each code's annual Medicare volume by the capped 2027 change; most leukemia/lymphoma panels bill 88184 once plus 88185 fifteen to thirty times, so the 88185 line dominates. Note that private payors that index to Medicare will follow.
Comment if the data look wrong for your code. Comments on the preliminary rates are due before Oct 21 (30 days from the Sep 21 posting), and CMS finalizes in November. The AHA's summary of the RESULTS Act (H.R. 5269 / S. 2761) is the fastest route to the legislative side: aha.org. Labcorp's 8-K is the template for what a large lab's objection looks like: 8-K.
We did not extract the 88184–88189 figures ourselves — the ZIP would not open from our tooling — so this note gives the method rather than the numbers. If you pull them, hit reply and we will run the table on Monday.
What did we miss? Hit reply — corrections run at the top of the next edition. If a colleague runs a sorter, a clinical flow bench or a QC-flow suite, forward this to them.