Highly versatile benchtop Flow Cytometry Analyzer

申请的资金对于购买申请人所在机构（蒙特利尔大学药学院）急需的多功能流式细胞仪至关重要。所有申请人都是独立研究活动第一年的年轻研究人员。在第一年，他们意识到他们学院（20岁）可用的细胞仪无法支持他们的研究计划，并起草了购买急需设备的资金申请。** 申请的仪器是Beckman Coulter Canada的CytoFLEX S流式细胞分析仪，这是一种高度通用的台式流式细胞仪，具有高度灵活性、最先进的荧光检测技术（雪崩光电二极管检测器），并且可以进行精细定制以完全满足研究人员的需求。更详细地说，选择了4个激光器选项（488，638，405和561 nm），提供多达9种不同颜色的潜在同时分析。与其他台式仪器相比，除了对细胞进行更经典的流式细胞术分析外，该仪器允许直接分析小至80 nm的颗粒（具有紫色侧向散射），这是两个申请人（合成纳米颗粒和病毒）进行研究的关键点。此外，它提供了进一步升级的高潜力（过滤器，自动多层板等）。所有这些细节使得所要求的仪器成为几个研究领域的理想选择，例如生物启发和靶向药物递送载体和诊断工具的开发和评估，救生抗微生物药物的药代动力学特征的评估以及药代动力学模型的开发，设计功能性3D工程脑模型，用于研究神经退行性疾病的病理标志和识别关键的参与多种疾病进展的生化途径。** 申请人所在的学院（蒙特利尔大学药学院）目前仅配备了一台20年前的流式细胞仪，其功能有限，无法接受，需要频繁进行昂贵的修改。虽然学院校园内有流式细胞仪设施，但服务费用昂贵（40美元/小时），最重要的是，无法维持申请人和学院其他成员所需的例行访问。缺乏仪器确实对申请人研究计划的整体启动产生了一些负面影响：它严重限制了他们的实验潜力和高素质人才的相关培训。**

The requested funding will be crucial for the purchase of a versatile flow cytometry analyser that is urgently lacking at the Institution of the applicants (Faculty of Pharmacy at the Université de Montreal). All the requesting applicants are young researchers within the first year of their independent research activities. During this first year they realized that the cytometer availableat their Faculty (20 years old) cannot not support their research programs, and drafted this funding request for the purchase of an urgently needed equipment. ******The requested instrument is the CytoFLEX S Flow Cytometry Analyzer from Beckman Coulter Canada, a highly versatile benchtop flow cytometer that offers a high degree of flexibility, the most advanced fluorescent detection technology (avalanche photodiode detectors), and can be finely customized to perfectly fit the need of the researchers. More in details, a 4 lasers option (488, 638, 405 and 561 nm) offering the potential simultaneous analyse of up to 9 different colors has been selected. Compared to other benchtop instruments, aside from more classical flow cytometry analysis on cell, this instrument allows the direct analysis of particles as small as 80 nm (with the violet side scatter), which is a crucial point for the research performed by two of the applicants (on synthetic nanoparticles and viruses). Moreover, it offers a high potential for further upgrade (filters, automated multiwall plate, etc.). All those details make the requested instrument ideal in several research fields such as the development and assessment of bioinspired and targeted drug delivery carriers and diagnostic tools, the assessment of pharmacokinetic profiles of life-saving antimicrobial drugs and development of pharmacokinetics models, the design of functional 3D engineered brain models for the study of pathological hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases and the identification of crucial biochemical pathways involved in the progression of several diseases. ******The Faculty of the applicants (Faculty of Pharmacy, Université de Montréal) is currently solely equipped with a 20-year old flow cytometer with unacceptable limited functionalities and requiring frequent costly revisions. Although a flow cytometry facility is available on the campus of the Faculty, the service is expensive (40 $/h) and, most importantly, cannot sustain the routine access needed by the applicants and the other members of the Faculty. The lack of the instruments does have several negative repercussion on the overall start of the applicant's research programs: it strongly limits their experimental potentials and associated training of highly qualified personnel. **