Fluorescence activated cell sorting for cell biology and immunology (360G-Wellcome-202950_Z_16_Z)

This is an application to support the purchase of a Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter (FACS) housed in a Biological Safety Containment Level 2 cabinet and to support the salary of a Flow Cytometry Operator. This equipment will support the research of approximately 30 academic research groups within the School of Life Sciences including 21 Wellcome Trust funded Principal Investigators. The research by these groups includes cell and molecular biology, bacteriology, immunology, mammalian developmental biology, parasitology and drug discovery. A dominant focus is on cell signaling, particularly in the context of the immune system, the regulation of cell metabolism and neuro-degeneration. There are also projects involving bacteria, yeast, trypanosomes and leishmania, as well as multiple non immune mammalian cells. The requirement for a new FACS stems from increased usage in research projects, a large increase in demand for use of single cell sorting cell sorting as part of efficient and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing protocols. There is also the need to use Biological Safety Containment level 2 for cell sorting to allow translation of research ideas generated using model organisms to studies of freshly isolated human blood derived lymphocytes and other human cells.