Maintaining and Enhancing Flow Cytometry Capacity for Biological Research at the University of Guelph

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Description of equipment requested: This application is for the purchase of a 21-colour flow cytometry machine. We use flow cytometry to rapidly and simultaneously identify thousands of different cells coming from an animal's blood or tissue. These could be cells from an animal in which we are testing a new vaccine and need to see how its immune cells, or T cells, have responded. Cells are put into the flow cytometer where they go past lasers which "zap" them. Specific cell types "break" the laser beam in specific ways, which allows us to classify all the cell groups in a complex mixture. But also, cells like T cells that have responded to a vaccine have different proteins on them than cells that have not responded. We can attach "cell markers" to those proteins that are like name tags. These name tags fluoresce when they are zapped by the laser. We know whether the T cells have responded to the vaccine because cells without the name tag (the ones that didn't respond) go past the laser without fluorescing. In medicine and science, it is important to be able to analyze complex groups of cells with as many name tags as possible - 21-colour flow cytometry is a very powerful tool that allows us to do that. It lets us analyze more cells from a single sample, using fewer cells from the animal, so we arrive at a diagnosis or an important scientific conclusion much more quickly. There are 8 cutting-edge scientists and >30 students, plus other researchers from across the University of Guelph that use our current flow cytometer, but it has only 8-colour capacity and breaks down frequently. So, we are requesting funds to purchase a state-of-the-art 21-colour flow cytometer to replace our old machine. It is the Cytekr Northern Lights multicolour flow cytometer, and will be housed in the Department of Pathobiology's "core facility". This facility has dedicated technical and research staff to maintain the machine and to help meet the many different uses that our NSERC-funded researchers have for it. This cutting-edge flow cytometer will increase the quality of our research and training of our students, which will allow us to compete globally, but will also benefit both the animals and people of Canada. Nature of work to be supported: This flow cytometer is an essential research tool for identifying vaccine-specific T cell lymphocyte responses in mice, pigs and sheep, for characterizing cancerous and altered immune cells from birds, cats, dogs, horses and cattle, for understanding what causes asthma or loss of control of bacterial infections, and how tumours hijack the body to create their own blood supply. Anticipated outcomes and benefits to Canada: This research is key to developing immune-based interventions and viral vectored vaccines, improving diagnosis of several types of cancer, testing novel therapies for cancer and asthma, and for defining immune control of bacterial infections, which benefits both the animals and people of Canada.