This proposal is for the acquisition of a state-of-the-art Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter (FACS) that will become part of a flow cytometry/cell sorting shared use facility appealing to a diverse set of research programs on the University of Oklahoma (OU) campus in Norman. Cell sorting is recognized as important and indispensable tools in fields ranging from basic biology in the life sciences to translational biomedical engineering research. Acquisition of state-of-the-art cell sorting capabilities on the OU-Norman campus would not only make available needed resources, but would also provide a powerful complement to existing cellular characterization facilities on the OU-Norman Campus: Scanning Electron Microscopy, Multi-photon Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy, and Atomic Force Microscopy. Combining detailed information about individual cell structures provided by these microscopy techniques with (i) the extensive statistical information about cell populations from high throughput flow cytometry and (ii) the ability to identify and sort cells from complex populations by immunophenotyping will foster new and innovative research directions across the OU campus.
