Visual protocol designer

A method for programming protocols for a flow cytometry machine, the method comprising:

• generating and displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising a workspace and a bank, wherein the bank comprises a plurality of selectable graphical elements corresponding to program logic that can be placed into the workspace;
• receiving a first user input for placing two or more of the selectable graphical elements from the bank into the workspace of the GUI into a sequence defining a graphical representation for a protocol for performing the program logic corresponding to the selectable graphical elements, wherein at least one of the selectable graphical elements is a conditional block;
• receiving a second user input corresponding to the conditional block, wherein in response to the second user input the conditional block is associated with:
• one or more target wells, a metric for the one or more target wells, a comparison number, and a comparison operator describing a satisfactory relationship between the metric and the comparison number;
• translating the graphical representation for the protocol into one or more executable instructions sent to a flow cytometry machine to perform the protocol, wherein the one or more executable instructions follow the sequence,
• wherein the program logic corresponding to the conditional block executes subsequent program logic in the sequence when the selected metric satisfying the relationship is produced by processing detected signals from the one or more target wells.

A method for programming protocols for a flow cytometry machine, the method comprising:

• generating and displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising a workspace and a bank, wherein the bank comprises a plurality of selectable graphical elements corresponding to program logic that can be placed into the workspace;
• receiving a first user input for placing two or more of the selectable graphical elements from the bank into the workspace of the GUI into a sequence defining a graphical representation for a protocol for performing the program logic corresponding to the selectable graphical elements;
• displaying a protocol preview window depicting a graphical representation of a plurality of wells and a second graphical representation of the protocol including a block for each action to be performed by the protocol;
• selecting a first block from the second graphical representation, and in response to selecting the first block highlighting a first set of wells, of the plurality of wells, affected by actions corresponding to the first block with a first color;
• translating the graphical representation for the protocol into one or more executable instructions sent to a flow cytometry machine to perform the protocol, wherein the one or more executable instructions follows the sequence.