About CD97
This gene encodes a member of the EGF-TM7 subfamily of adhesion G protein-coupled receptors, which mediate cell-cell interactions. These proteins are cleaved by self-catalytic proteolysis into a large extracellular subunit and seven-span transmembrane subunit, which associate at the cell surface as a receptor complex. The encoded protein may play a role in cell adhesion as well as leukocyte recruitment, activation and migration, and contains multiple extracellular EGF-like repeats which mediate binding to chondroitin sulfate and the cell surface complement regulatory protein CD55. Expression of this gene may play a role in the progression of several types of cancer. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding multiple isoforms with 3 to 5 EGF-like repeats have been observed for this gene. This gene is found in a cluster with other EGF-TM7 genes on the short arm of chromosome 19. [provided by RefSeq, Jun 2011]

About FITC
Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) has an excitation peak at 495 nm and an emission peak at 519 nm. The name FITC is a misnomer in that the isothiocyanate is a reactive form of this dye. Once FITC is conjugated to an antibody, it is simply Fluorescein conjugated. FITC is one of the most widely used dyes for fluorescent applications, therefore most instruments come standard with a 488 nm laser and FITC filter set up. FITC is commonly conjugated to secondary antibodies and used in applications such as flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry, and immunohistochemistry. FITC is relatively dim, sensitive to photobleaching and it is susceptible to changes is pH. There are better performing alternatives to FITC, like Vio®Bright 515, Alexa Fluor™ 488, iFluor® 488, CF®488A and DY-488. FITC is a long-time generic dye with no sole manufacturer or trademark.