Recently, the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences has begun an effort to relocate research groups to shared laboratory spaces with shared core resources. Our individual funding mechanisms typically do not allow for purchase of equipment items of this size, and therefore we rely on shared equipment resources for our clinical and diagnostic research. A key equipment that is lacking for shared use is a flow cytometer that can be used for several types of experiments. As opposed to the more sophisticated flow cytometry instrumentation offered by the flow cytometry core facilities, we specifically need a basic model that allows for concurrent use of only up to 4 fluorochromes and does not need to have the ability to sort cells. Such a basic flow cytometer will be easy to maintain and the specific choice for the BD Accuri C6 model will facilitate use by trainees with limited prior experience in this technique.

We have identified several different research projects in need of this equipment. These involve scientific questions that include clinical research in a variety of species, such as cattle, horses, swine, dogs, cats, as well as the use of a variety of mammalian cell lines for diagnostic assay development and basic research questions.