Institute of Immunology & Infection Research

Flow Cytometry Core Facility

Aria stream

Welcome to the Flow Cytometry Core Facility

Flow cytometry is a laser-based technology that allows the multi-parameter measurement of characteristics of biological particles, in a single cell suspension, as they flow in a liquid medium past an excitation light source. This can be applied to whole cells as well as prepared cellular components such as nuclei or organelles. The underlying principle is that light is scattered and fluorescence is emmitted as light from the excitation source stikes individual moving particles. Flow cytometry is particularly important for biological research because it allows qualitative and quantitative examination of whole cells and cellular constituents that have been labelled with a wide range of commercially availible reagents, such as dyes, reporter proteins and monoclonal antibodies.

The FACSAria Cell Sorter provides in addition a method for dissecting a heterogenous mixture of biological cells into discret sub-populations, one cell at a time, based upon the specific light scattering and fluorescent characteristics of each cell. It is a useful scientific instrument as it provides fast, objective and quantitative recording of fluorescent signals from individual cells as well as physical separation of cells of particular interest.

Expert support and technical assistance are available to help with the design and development of experiments.