Purchase of an imaging flow cytometer 2016

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Project Summary/Abstract: This proposal requests funds to purchase an ImageStream Mark II imaging flow cytometer for the Cytometry Shared Resource Laboratory (CSRL) at the University of Georgia. The ImageStream combines the speed, sensitivity, and fluorescence detection capabilities of flow cytometry with the detailed imaging and functional insights of microscopy. This instrument produces multiple, high- resolution images of every cell directly in flow, including brightfield and darkfield and up to 10 fluorescent markers. The CTEGD Cytometry SRL is the central flow cytometry facility for UGA and is housed within and staffed by the UGA Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases (CTEGD). For more than 15 years the CTEGD CSRL has served the entire university community and surrounding biotechnology companies as well as regional academic institutions. Major users of the facility include laboratories with research foci in infectious diseases, stem cell differentiation, environmental impacts on cellular functions and obesity. Among infectious disease research programs to be supported by this purchase are investigations of Chagas disease, a disease that affects >20 million people in Latin America and the U.S., African sleeping sickness and Nagana, an infection of cattle that results in ~$4 billion in agricultural loss per year, and malaria, one of the “big 3” infectious disease killers. Viral immunology is the focus of 2 of our major users who are studying the interaction between host genes and viral replication as it relates to drug resistance. The ImageStream will allow stem cell and cellular biologists to better understand the cell cycle progression of pluripotent stem cells and the impact of new cancer therapies, as well as to correlate the cell cycle with the effects of environmental pollutants. The knowledge obtained by studying adipose nuclei is projected to facilitate drug development in the field of obesity. Thus, we expect the ImageStream to have a broad impact on the diverse research across the UGA campus.