FCS Express provides a number of tools that allow you to create and use spreadsheets to graph your data. Your spreadsheets can contain data from many sources including, but not limited to, tokens such as keyword, statistics, custom tokens, and token classifiers. In previous versions of FCS Express, custom data grids were used to create and graph data sets. However, in FCS Express version 6, the custom data grid is replaced with the new spreadsheet function. The advantage of creating a spreadsheet containing tokens is that when your layout changes (e.g., by making a gate or displaying a new set of data) your data within that spreadsheet will change as well. The use of a spreadsheet allows you to easily demonstrate the important results from your experiments using a spreadsheet very similar to excel, by graphing the results using a bar chart  or scatter plot. In this tutorial, we will focus on creating and using spreadsheets.

 

Note: Spreadsheets replace Custom Data grids from previous versions of FCS Express but have the same and more advanced capabilities. If you have Custom Data tables saved from previous versions of FCS Express in your layout, then FCS Express 6 will allow you to open them for use and formatting. New custom data may not be created as Spreadsheets will replace all functions of the previous Custom Data grid functionality.

 

We will create a custom spreadsheet to aid in the analysis of an HLA cross-match experiment. Flow cytometry is frequently used to predict how much soluble IgG, from a potential recipient's serum, will bind to the cells of an engrafted organ. The assumption is that most of the IgG binding is directed against the HLA molecules on the donor cells. A negative cross-match means that the soluble IgG in the potential recipient's serum did not bind to a significant number of lymphocytes from the donor cells. This negative cross-match correlates with an improved graft survival. Specifically, we will examine the T- and B-cells from the donor to determine the amount of IgG binding from the potential recipient using an anti-human FITC labeled IgG.

In the course of this example, we will:

•Load and examine a layout with all the plots needed to perform an HLA cross-match.

•Create and insert various kinds of tokens and data into a new Spreadsheet.

•Explore various ways of entering information into a Spreadsheet.

•Create Conditional Formatting in Spreadsheet cells.

 

First, we will load a layout in preparation for creation of a custom dataset.