This proposal is to acquire a state-of-the-art flow cytometer with sorting capabilities in order to upgrade the multi-user Flow Cytometry Facility of the Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University, and thus optimally support the research activities of the NIH-funded members of the Cancer Center. We request to purchase a Cytomation MoFlo(TM) HTS Ultra High-Speed Sort Flow Cytometer with capability of high speed 4-way sorting, of routine simultaneous analysis of greater than 4 fluorochromes, and with the added capability of single cell deposition. Currently, the KCC Flow Cytometry Facility is the sole facility of this type on the TJU campus. It is equipped with a 12-year old Coulter EPICS Elite ESP, which is also a sorting instrument, and two analyzers: a 4-year old Coulter EPICS XL-MCL, and a 15- year old Becton-Dickinson FACSCalibur Benchtop Analyzer. A newly acquired BD Aria Sorter is physically present (although yet to be installed in a newly to-be-developed facility) in the Neurology Department at TJU. Whenever in operation, however, this piece of equipment will be dedicated to the specific needs of Neurological Sciences research, with the KCC investigator having limited access. The increased number of KCC investigators requiring high-speed cell sorting in their NIH-sponsored projects serves as the main justification for our request for a Cytomation MoFlo in the existing and operating KCC facility. Our application is focused on the need of this core facility to upgrade its services as a result of: 1) our NIH-investigators' increasing requests for desirable cell yields of sorted samples in reasonable time periods, which are currently unachievable with the present equipment; 2) an increasing demand for rare-event sorting within large cell populations, and for simultaneous analysis of greater than 4 fluorochrome-detectable parameters; and 3) the lack of sufficient and reliable access to near-by high speed sorting services. The availability of the Cytomation MoFlo instrument requested would allow outstanding basic and clinical research to be continued, and new projects to be initiated, at the KCC. It also would increase the efficiency of the existing Facility, allowing reliable use of the instruments by more investigators, and by other investigators (not in need of the machine requested here) to perform the more routine analysis and sorting in a timely manner on the old equipment, without the lag existent at present.
