About Our Core:

Our mission is to support Nemours researchers by providing critical instrumentation and expertise to investigators. The Cell Science Core (CSC) specializes in flow cytometry, cell sorting, cell culture, and protein analysis. Contact us for access our services and instrumentation. CSC services and instruments are available to researchers outside of Nemours for a reasonable fee.

Flow Cytometers

Flow cytometry pairs intricate fluidics and light systems to allow researchers to analyze thousands of cells in seconds. Our flow cytometers have 3-4 lasers for excitation and 13-25 emission filters, so researchers can select almost any antibody-fluorochrome congugates work for their project goals. Common analyses include examining cell activation/differentiation, protein expression, transfection efficiency, particle internalization, cell death/proliferation, or simply immunophenotyping subsets of cells. Both our flow cytometers are easy to use and are available to researchers after they complete a training session. 

CSC strongly advises users understand the spectral overlap of their fluorochromes before purchasing. ThermoFisher, Biolegend, and others provide useful spectral viewer tools. Remember to adjust the displayed emission filters to match the ones in the CSC instruments (ask us for full info)

• Novocyte 3000 Flow Cytometer (Agilent) - 3 laser, 13 fluorescence color instrument, ideal for the majority of flow cytometry based experiments
• Quanteon Flow Cytometer (Agilent) - 4 laser, 25 fluorescence color instrument, adds a yellow laser which helps with PE based spillover

Cell Sorting

Fluorescently activated cell sorters (FACS) are specialized flow cytometers with the ability to selectively recover subpopulations into tubes or plates. This allows researchers to recover cells of interest for any number of downstream analyses or simply to create an enriched or pure population for continued growth.

Our staff operate the cell sorter so the researcher can focus on sample pre- and post-sort processing. Project consultations are offered and highly recommended during the project planning phases. Please reach out to us in advance to schedule a project consult prior to sorting.

• FACS Aria III Cell Sorter (BD Biosciences) - 3 laser, 11 fluorescence color instrument
• 4-way sort capability (simultaneously collect up to 4 distinct subpopulations within a single sample).
• Cells of interest can be sorted into a variety of tubes or plates. Live-cell samples can be sorted to create a pure cell culture.
• Operated by experienced technician, fee-for-service

Luminex (multiplexed ELISA)

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Luminex xMAP Intelliflex System - Luminex assays improve upon traditional ELISAs by allowing researchers to multiplex and analyze dozens of targets in a single well, thereby saving time, cost, and precious sample. Luminex analyzes soluble targets (such as cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, etc.) in a variety of samples types (serum, plasma, cell culture or cell lysis supernatants). Luminex analysis can also complement flow cytometry which analyzes targets on or in intact cells

Seahorse XF Pro

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Seahorse XF Pro Analyzer can provide data critical to understanding cellular dysfunction, mitochondrial health, toxicity, and glycolysis. The Seahorse XF provides real-time data of metabolic activity in cells by measuring oxygen consumption rate and extracellular acidification rate

Miscellaneous

so many things (under construction)

• Zeiss Observer 3 fluorescent microscope
• Licor Odyssey Western Blot Imager
• Licor C-Digit Western Blot Imager
• Victor Nivo 5F Multimode Plate Reader
• BSL-2 Cell Culture Facility

Contacts

Available Equipment and Resources