The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center (RHLCCC) Flow Cytometry Core Facility is an established, productive, highly interactive and well maintained state of the art facility offering investigators all service levels needed for successful completion of virtually any flow cytometry experiment. Strong emphasis is placed on user education/interaction and experimental optimization. Flexible service levels driven by investigator needs range from consultation, sample preparation, data acquisition/analysis and publication graphic generation to simply providing optimized instrumentation. The main RHLCCC Flow Cytometry Core Facility is on the Medical School campus and has six analytical cytometers including a state of the art 6 laser BD LSRFortessa (details below). All sorting demands for the entire campus are accomplished on a 5 laser Beckman-Coulter MoFlo instrument purchased in 2003. Although a robust, heavily utilized instrument, the MoFlo design is dated with performance and capabilities not well matched to current evolving complex analytical demands of users. The facility's state of the art analytical capabilities provide excitation lines and sensitivity not achievable on the MoFlo. Further, the dated MoFlo design compromises cell recovery in many instances. Secondly, in part due to ongoing programmatic investigator expansion, sorter user base has expanded more than 10 fold. Both MoFlo capabilities relative to analytical results and capacity have hindered user satisfaction and in many cases scientific progress. Lastly, rapidly increasing translational research emphasis has accentuated the need for safe, bio-contained sorting capabilities of human cells beyond the scope of our current MoFlo. This proposal is for purchase of a FACSAria SORP, bench-top high speed cell sorter equipped with five lasers (405, 488, 552, 640, and 690nm) capable of analyzing up to 11 different parameters plus forward and side scatter, aerosol containment chamber, and temperature regulation features. The sorter will be permanently housed in a Baker BioProtect IV-LE biosafety hood. If funded, this will provide state-of-the-art cell sorter instrumentation with safe human cell sorting capabilities to meet the increasingly complex needs of our user base.
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