Flow Cytometry and In Vivo Imaging Core Laboratory

Instruments

The Flow Cytometry and In Vivo Imaging Core Laboratory provides technical expertise and two major instruments for analysis, the BD FACSCalibur™ and Caliper Life Sciences IVIS® Lumina II.

Flow Cytometry

The BD FACSCalibur platform is a dual laser 4 color analysis flow cytometer. It offers a unique modular approach to flow cytometry and allows users to perform both cell analysis and cell sorting. The BD FACSCalibur™ flow cytometer provides flexibility to support a wide variety of research and clinical applications such as cell phenotyping with surface or intracellular markers, cell cycle analysis, and apoptotic cell detection. Recommended fluorochromes are FITC, Alexa Fluor 488, PE, PerCP, PE-Cy5, PerCP-Cy5.5, PE-Cy7, and APC, Alexa 647.

In Vivo Bioluminescence Imaging

The purpose of in vivo bioluminescence imaging is to detect bioluminescent tracer molecules in living small animals for tumor growth kinetics and distant metastasis. The Caliper Life Sciences IVIS® Lumina II is capable of imaging both fluorescent and bioluminescent reporters. The system is equipped with up to 21 filter sets that can be used to image reporters that emit from green to near-infrared wavelengths. Superior spectral un-mixing can be achieved by Lumina II’s optional high resolution short cut off filters. The Living Image software yields high-quality, reproducible, quantitative results incorporating instrument calibration, background subtraction and the image algorithms. The core laboratory provides training in the use of a Caliper Life Sciences IVIS® bioluminescent imager, and an introduction to the software used to analyze data generated by this instrument.