The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) flow cytometry core facility requests funds to replace its FACS Vantage SE flow cytometer/cell sorter (which is obsolete) with a FACS Aria II three laser special order system. This new instrumentation will provide cell sorting and data analysis capabilities beyond the current four color limitation of the existing instrumentation. This upgrade will enhance the sorting capabilities of the core and provide additional laser excitation/emission parameters to investigators requiring more than four fluorescent parameter analyses and/or increased sensitivity for fluorescent proteins and green excitable dyes. Instrumentation Users: The flow cytometry core facility serves the entire UNL campus and is being managed by the Nebraska Center for Virology (NCV). Its user base is increasing. Its current major user group comprises 12 researchers from several UNL departments with different applications, including biological sciences, veterinary and biomedical sciences, biochemistry, food science and technology, and biological systems engineering. Eight of the major users are NIH-funded investigators;at least five of these investigators will have active NIH-funded research programs at the time the instrument is installed that will directly benefit from the instrumentation. In addition, three minor users have been identified whose access to this equipment will generate preliminary data for pending and proposed research grants, and trainees in several NIH-funded training grants will benefit from research experience using the instrumentation. Significance: The FACS Aria will be the only cell sorter at UNL and in the city of Lincoln, Neb. and it is essential to further the development of numerous investigators'careers, especially those affiliated with the NCV and the Nebraska Redox Biology Center, NIH Centers for Biomedical Research Excellence charged in part with developing the careers of promising junior investigators. Addition of this equipment to the core facility will provide new avenues for research to many of the current NIH-funded users of the facility, as well as enhance the ability of new and young investigators to become principal investigators on NIH-funded research grants and obtain research funding from other agencies. Finally, the new cell sorting capability will replace the aging and obsolete FACS Vantage in the core facility, which will impact research training for UNL's undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and provide new opportunities for faculty at other educational institutions in the city to perform research utilizing the state-of-the-science instrumentation.
Purchase of a FACS Aria II three laser special order system is necessary to further the research programs of numerous NIH-funded investigators at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), propel promising junior investigators at UNL to NIH funding, and improve research training of UNL's undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The FACS Aria will replace a FACS Vantage SE flow cytometer/cell sorter, which is now obsolete. Given that this will be the only cell sorter in Lincoln, Neb., it will also provide new opportunities for faculty at other educational institutions in the city to perform research utilizing the state-of-the-science instrumentation.
