The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center is a nonprofit research institute founded in 1991 with USPH grant-supported research programs in cancer genomics, angiogenesis and vascular biology, hematopoiesis and immunology and molecular and cell biology. The Center has grown rapidly to our current roster of 21 principal investigators and 130 support staff with $12 million/year in NIH support. Presently employees of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center occupy a 90,000 sq. ft. building with an adjacent 38,000 sq. ft. building under construction, to be occupied in July 2003. A flow cytometry core facility is under expansion. Presently the facility consists of a Becton Dickinson FACS Calibur instrument equipped for four fluorescence parameter detection and five computer workstations located throughout the Center having Cell Quest data analysis software and networked to a NT Windows server having a 24 gigabyte storage capacity. Currently there are monthly training classes for new staff and a seminar series on the various uses of flow cytometry is under development. The acquisition of a B.D. FACS Vantage SE II cytometer would provide state-of-the art fluorescence-activated cell sorting capability, both to users at the Center but also to the larger research community in the San Diego area. Eight major and six minor users have been identified at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center whose research programs either require or would be significantly enhanced by access to this technology. All of the major users and most of the minor users have experience with flow cytometry and many routinely utilize cell sorting facilities at neighboring research institutes. The majority of the users have need to collect large numbers of purified cells with a defined phenotype for use in a variety of in vitro and in vivo assays, others require the screening and selection of successfully transfected cell lines, bacteria, or the purification of very rare cells from large samples for gene expression analyses. The FACS Vantage SE II instrument would be ideally suited to these needs with its capacity for multi-parameter (up to 8 fluorescence and 2 light scatter parameters) detection, 4-way sorting allowing the simultaneous collection of four subsets, automated sorting into multi-well trays and sorting speeds of 25,000 events/second with retention of excellent viability, function and purity. ? ? ?
