Analytical 4-Laser flow cytometer

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Beside two cell sorters and an Imaging cytometer, the Cytometry & Cell Sorting (CCS) Core Unit of the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) has got three analytical flow cytometers, particularly a 5-laser one (20 colours), a 4-laser one (17 colours) and a 3-laser device (8 colours). All analytical flow cytometers have had a high to very high workload. With the installation of the 5-laser device the CCS core can now offer multi-parameter-analyses with up to 20 colours thus covering the increasing need in this area. However, many of the standard applications in the core have so far comprised 3 to 8 colours. For these measurements, most users have been happy with the 3-laser flow cytometer in the last years, which have been quite popular (app. 1200 h pure analysis time [excluding maintenance, service etc.] in 2019). Unfortunately, the 3-laser device was obtained back in 2007 and is now 13 years old, which has resulted in increasing numbers of and costs for repairs. Consequently, we urgently need a replacement, which builds on the parameters of the current device, but also on the recent progress in flow cytometry. The latter particularly includes instalment of a fourth, yellow-green laser (and the respective detectors) in order to enable detection of red proteins now frequently used by many of the core users as well as novel red fluorophores. Moreover, the new flow cytometer should allow measurement of sample volumes and thus absolute cell counts, which will, for example, facilitate high-throughput toxicity analyses, since direct sampling will be possible from 96-well as well as 384-well plates.Altogether, the current 13-year old device in the Core Facility Cytometry & Cell Sorting needs to be replaced by a novel medium-class flow cytometer. This will warrant the continuous work of the Cytometry & Cell Sorting Core Unit of the UKE and, moreover, establish novel opportunities for the user in accord with the current state-of-the-art in analytical flow cytometry.