Development of a Flow Cytometry/Cell Sorting Facility

毕格罗海洋科学实验室的流式细胞术和细胞分选设备将进一步发展流式细胞术在海洋生物学/海洋学中的应用。这个多用户设施有助于将流式细胞术（一种为生物医学研究界开发的技术）用于海洋科学研究。利用这种技术，一束浮游植物细胞或其他微小颗粒通过激光光束。不同的细胞和粒子可以根据它们在激光下发出荧光或作出反应的方式进行列举和分类。分析荧光信号可以得到细胞大小、细胞成分和代谢状况的重要信息。工作将继续发展适当的流式细胞术标准和项目，用于植物-浮游生物数据的相互校准。该设施将供客座调查人员使用。与工业界的协调将促进用于海洋研究的基础流式细胞仪的进一步发展和改进。改进和修改将针对a)扩大仪器的动态范围（40年对数表示），b)增加分析的特定体积，c)结合体积传感和光散射，d)自动化泵分析系统的在线采样器，以及e)使系统更加坚固耐用，适合船上使用。

The Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting Facility at the Bigelow Laboratory of Ocean Sciences will further develop the operation and methodology of flow cytometric applications to marine biology/oceanography. This multi-user facility has been instrumental in adapting flow cytometry, a technology developed for use in the biomedical research community, for ocean science research. With this technique, a stream of phytoplankton cells or other microscopic particles is passed through a laser light beam. Different cells and particles can be enumerated and classified according to how they fluoresce or react in response to the laser light. Analysis of the fluoresced signal can yield important information on cell size, cellular constituents, and metabolic condition. Work will continue to develop appropriate flow cytometry standards and items useful for intercalibration of phyto- plankton data. The Facility will be available for use by guest investigators. Coordination with industry will promote further development and modifications to basic flow cytometry instrumentation for oceanographic research. Improvements and modifications will be directed towards towards a) expanding dynamic range of the instruments (4-decade log representa- tion), b) increasing the specific volume analyzed, c) incorporating volume sensing as well as light scatter, d) automating an on-line sampler for a pump profiling system, and e) making the system more rugged for shipboard use.