Flow Cytometry

Ulf Klein, PhD, Director

Kristie Gordon, MS, Manager

The Cancer Center Flow Cytometry Shared Resource assists Cancer Center Members in flow cytometry-based studies. The ability to separate a heterogeneous mixture of cells into distinct populations for phenotypic characterization or functional analysis has become increasingly important for biomedical research. Flow cytometry is especially valuable for these purposes as it combines the analytical power of multi-parameter analysis with the possibility to isolate populations of cells according to specific parameters.

Services include:

• Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS)
• Analytical flow cytometry for immunophenotyping
• Flow cytometry for analyzing cell cycle and apoptosis

The facility now operates five instruments, including three fluorescence-activated cell sorters that allow high-speed cell sorting and can detect up to 12 fluorescent parameters plus novel living color fluorescent proteins (mCherry, DsRed, mFruits, etc. Sorter 3 Only), and one advanced cell analyzer that is able to perform specialty applications such as determination of DNA content, apoptosis, multiple (living color) fluorescent protein analysis, calcium flux measurements, in addition to multi-color immunofluorenscent analysis.

In addition to these sophisticated instruments, the facility provides access to one user-operated basic cytometer permitting 3- or 4-color immunophenotyping, as well as cell cycle and apoptosis assays. High-throughput screening with a 96-well plate-reader is possible on this analyzer.

The flow cytometric separation of cells from unfixed human tissue is possible on a BD FACSAria equipped as BSL2 (Sorter 1 Only).

Data analysis software (FlowJo) is also available for purchase. This can be downloaded at a very competitive price ($200) for offline analysis in your lab. To register your computer, please visit http://www.flowjo.com/FLS/registration/columbia.html.