Brian Quast, VP of Sales and MarketingThe frustration is real—enzymes, commonly used to separate tissue, often alter the very cells researchers aim to study. These methods can damage surface markers and erase the natural diversity of the tissue, leading to results that don’t truly reflect biology. As single-cell research continues to grow, the need for a gentler, more reliable alternative has never been greater.
Cellsonics has answered that call.
With its enzyme-free acoustic technology, SimpleFlow, the company is preserving the true nature of cells for the insights that matter most. The sound-based device gently separates the tissue using a proprietary combination of sound and mechanical movement to produce healthy, high-quality cells, which can be used in research techniques like single-cell RNA sequencing and flow cytometry.
“Recognizing the scientific community’s urgent need for an alternative to enzymatic dissociation, we designed SimpleFlow to recover cell populations that better reflect the native tissue,” says Brian Quast, VP of sales and marketing. “Our goal is to ensure scientists get the most accurate results and receive maximum value from every experiment.”
Enzymes Vs Acoustic
While engaging with scientists, Cellsonics identified that some essential cell types like fibroblasts in skin and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) across various tissues are still hard to collect using conventional methods. Also, enzymes can harm sensitive cell populations, especially neurons and astrocytes in dissociated murine brain tissue.
Considering all these challenges, the company conducted a recent test to compare the popular enzyme-based method with its SimpleFlow system. The result was remarkable: SimpleFlow recovered higher yields of both neurons and astrocytes, which has been a great encouragement for the Cellsonics team.
This is just one instance. To further demonstrate the value of its flagship solution, the company carried out another experiment. Here, researchers worked with a type of cell that is identified using a specific surface marker, which is very sensitive to enzymes. Initially, they used traditional enzymatic dissociation but the marker got damaged, making it hard to sort and study the right cells. Although the team spent a considerable amount of time trying different enzyme mixtures, the outcomes remained inconsistent. Once they tried SimpleFlow, the difference was clear. The acoustic, enzyme-free method preserved the delicate surface marker entirely, allowing for more accurate cell sorting and analysis.
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Our goal is to ensure scientists get the most accurate results and receive maximum value from every experiment
This is just one instance. To further demonstrate the value of its flagship solution, the company carried out another experiment. Here, researchers worked with a type of cell that is identified using a specific surface marker, which is very sensitive to enzymes. Initially, they used traditional enzymatic dissociation but the marker got damaged, making it hard to sort and study the right cells. Although the team spent a considerable amount of time trying different enzyme mixtures, the outcomes remained inconsistent. Once they tried SimpleFlow, the difference was clear. The acoustic, enzyme-free method preserved the delicate surface marker entirely, allowing for more accurate cell sorting and analysis.
These side-by-side comparisons prove how SimpleFlow’s gentle approach offers real advantages for researchers working with sensitive cell types.
Preserving Biology, Empowering Discovery
Cellsonics invests a great deal of effort in advancing its system to become the go-to alternative for tissue dissociation. The company takes a close look at every step of the dissociation process and continually seeks new ways to make it even better, driving an innovative mindset.
One such example is the integration of a cartridge in the SimpleFlow system, which features a built-in mincing blade. This allows tissue to be processed directly inside the cartridge which reduces the need for extra handling, a critical factor in preserving tissue structure and minimizing contamination risk. The system also operates in a controlled 4°C water bath, limiting heat exposures and cellular stress.
By replacing harsh enzymes and adverse environmental conditions with its enzyme-free acoustic technology, Cellsonics preserves cellular integrity and maintains tissue heterogeneity—something that has not been achieved yet. For scientists, it is pushing the boundaries of single-cell analysis and other downstream applications by delivering a dissociation solution built for the future of discovery.
With SimpleFlow, now researchers no longer have to choose between dissociation efficiency and preserving the biology that matters most—they can have both.
Preserving Biological Fidelity in Tissue Dissociation
Tissue dissociation has become a much more important step in modern single-cell research than many laboratories once assumed. As scRNA-seq, flow cytometry and high-resolution cellular profiling become more central to translational and discovery research, scientists are paying closer attention to what happens to a sample before sequencing or analysis even begins. Increasingly, the concern is not just whether enough cells can be recovered, but whether the dissociation process itself changes the biology researchers are trying to measure.
Traditional enzymatic workflows still dominate much of the market, but they also come with growing concerns. Researchers have reported issues ranging from altered surface-marker expression to the loss of fragile or rare cell populations during processing. In areas such as immunology, neuroscience and tumor biology, those distortions can significantly affect downstream interpretation. A sequencing dataset may look technically strong while still misrepresenting the original tissue environment because sensitive cell types were damaged, stressed or selectively lost during preparation.
That has shifted attention toward tissue dissociation methods focused more on preservation than speed alone. Many labs now want workflows that maintain tissue heterogeneity and reduce cellular stress throughout processing, especially when working with delicate populations. Brain tissue is one of the clearest examples. Neurons and astrocytes can be particularly difficult to recover intact using conventional enzymatic methods, making biological preservation a much larger priority in neuroscience-focused workflows.
Researchers are also becoming more sensitive to variability introduced through repeated handling, heating steps and prolonged chemical digestion. Small differences in processing conditions can create reproducibility problems across experiments or research sites, particularly in large-scale single-cell studies. As a result, procurement teams are increasingly evaluating systems that simplify handling steps and create more controlled preparation environments. Preserving fragile surface markers has become another important factor, especially for sorting applications where the markers themselves define the populations researchers are attempting to isolate.
Cost considerations are pushing the same trend. Single-cell sequencing and advanced cytometry workflows are expensive, and poor dissociation quality can compromise an entire experiment before analysis begins. Many organizations are therefore looking beyond simple cell yield and focusing more heavily on whether recovered cells remain biologically representative and usable for downstream applications.
Cellsonics has positioned its platform around that preservation-focused approach to tissue dissociation. Its SimpleFlow system combines mechanical mincing with proprietary acoustic technology designed to generate high-quality cells while minimizing disruption to the original tissue environment. The company’s approach reflects growing concern within the research community that aggressive enzymatic workflows can alter cell populations before characterization even begins.
The platform appears particularly relevant for researchers working with fragile or difficult-to-recover populations. Comparative work highlighted by Cellsonics has shown stronger recovery of neurons and astrocytes relative to some conventional enzymatic methods, while early-access users have also reported improved preservation of sensitive surface markers during sorting workflows. The cartridge-based design integrates tissue mincing directly into the system and operates within a cooled water bath intended to reduce heat exposure and cellular stress. For organizations prioritizing biological fidelity in single-cell sequencing and cytometric analysis, Cellsonics offers a workflow designed around preserving the native characteristics of the tissue rather than maximizing dissociation intensity alone.
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Tissue Dissociation Solution Info
Q1
Why is Cellsonics recognized among Top Tissue Dissociation Solution providers?
Cellsonics is recognized in Tissue Dissociation Solutions due to its development of SimpleFlow™, an acoustic technology that dissociates solid tissue without enzymes or heat. Unlike conventional methods that can alter cell markers and gene expression, its system preserves native cell populations. This allows researchers to obtain more biologically accurate samples for downstream applications such as single-cell RNA sequencing and flow cytometry, strengthening its position in Tissue Dissociation Solutions.
Q2
What makes Cellsonics Tissue Dissociation Solutions different from enzyme-based methods?
The key difference lies in the elimination of enzymatic digestion. Tissue Dissociation Solutions from Cellsonics use Bulk Lateral Ultrasound (BLU™) energy to gently separate cells. This avoids heat stress and enzymatic degradation that can distort cellular behavior. As a result, sensitive cell types such as neurons, immune cells and stromal populations are better preserved, improving data reliability in research workflows where accuracy is critical.
Q3
How does SimpleFlow support research through Tissue Dissociation Solutions?
SimpleFlow supports research by delivering high-yield, high-viability single-cell suspensions in minutes using a cartridge-based workflow. Within Tissue Dissociation Solutions, it standardizes tissue processing through automated protocols that minimize user variability. Researchers benefit from consistent sample preparation across tissue types including brain, tumor, lung and cardiac samples, enabling more reproducible experimental outcomes.
Q4
What role does technology play in Cellsonics Tissue Dissociation Solutions?
Technology is central to Tissue Dissociation Solutions at Cellsonics, particularly through its BLU™ acoustic energy system. This platform processes tissue at controlled low temperatures without enzymatic reagents, reducing cellular stress during dissociation. Integrated cartridge systems also simplify handling by combining mincing, dissociation and filtration into a closed workflow, improving both efficiency and sample integrity.
Q5
How do Tissue Dissociation Solutions from Cellsonics improve data quality in single-cell research?
Cellsonics improves data quality by preserving cell surface markers and native gene expression profiles that are often altered by enzyme-based dissociation. Its Tissue Dissociation Solutions reduce artifacts that can bias flow cytometry and sequencing results. This leads to more accurate representation of heterogeneous tissue populations, which is essential for immunology, oncology and neuroscience research applications.
Q6
Why are Tissue Dissociation Solutions from Cellsonics important for modern life sciences research?
Modern life sciences increasingly depend on single-cell resolution to understand complex biological systems. Cellsonics addresses a critical bottleneck by improving how tissues are prepared before analysis. Its Tissue Dissociation Solutions enable researchers to capture a more complete and unbiased cellular landscape, supporting advances in precision medicine, immunotherapy and disease modeling while reducing variability introduced by traditional dissociation techniques.
