Replacement of a core facility's heavily-used, 22-year-old analytical flow cytometer for which parts and service are no longer guaranteed.

NSERC要求提供资金，在圭尔夫大学病理生物学系的核心流式细胞仪设施中更换已有22年历史的BD FACScan细胞仪。制造商BD Biosciences最近发出的通知称，该仪器的部件和服务不能再得到保证，他们强烈建议更换该仪器，以确保不间断的研究进展。这使得升级到新的分析型流式细胞仪成为当务之急。BD FACScan目前支持22个研究项目，涉及6个部门。由于BD FACScan的零部件已不再生产，故障将使许多此类研究项目面临风险。因此，我们建议将BD FACScan替换为最先进的BD Accuri C6分析流式细胞仪和高通量自动样品加载器。该仪器将极大地提高圭尔夫大学基于流式细胞术的研究的效率和复杂性。使用这种新仪器获取数据的速度要快得多，这也意味着可以容纳更多的用户，降低实验成本，从而节省宝贵的研究资金。新的BD Accuri C6流式细胞仪将用于支持对了解与兽药相关的动物疾病机制至关重要的研究，以及临床前人类疾病动物模型的基础生物学研究。此外，Accuri C6流式细胞仪还将用于培训加拿大免疫学、病毒学、病理学、兽医、癌症生物学、食品科学和干细胞生物学等领域的下一代科学家。值得注意的是，具有高通量能力的新数字BD Accuri C6的价格实际上低于22年前最初的模拟手动加载BD FACScan的成本。

Funds are requested from NSERC to replace the 22-year-old BD FACScan cytometer in the core flow cytometry facility located in the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Guelph. Recent notification from the manufacturer, BD Biosciences, states that parts and service can no longer be guaranteed for this instrument and they highly recommend that it be replaced to ensure uninterrupted research progress. This makes an upgrade to a new analytical flow cytometer an urgent matter. The BD FACScan is currently supporting 22 research programs, spanning 6 departments. Since parts for the BD FACScan are no longer being manufactured, a breakdown would put many of these research programs at risk. Therefore, we propose to replace the BD FACScan with a state-of-the-art BD Accuri C6 analytical flow cytometer with a high-throughput automated sample loader. This instrument would dramatically enhance the efficiency and sophistication of flow cytometry-based research at the University of Guelph. The much greater speed at which data can be acquired with this new instrument would also mean that more users could be accommodated and experimental costs would be reduced, thereby stretching valuable research dollars. The new BD Accuri C6 flow cytometer will be used to support studies critical to understanding mechanisms of disease in animals of relevance to veterinary medicine as well as basic biological studies in pre-clinical animal models of human diseases. In addition, the Accuri C6 flow cytometer will be used in the training of Canada's next generation of scientists in the fields of immunology, virology, pathology, veterinary medicine, cancer biology, food science and stem cell biology. Remarkably, the price for a new digital BD Accuri C6 with high-throughput capability is actually less than the original analog manual sample-loading BD FACScan cost 22 years ago.