Acquisition of a Flow Cytometer for Interdisciplinary Research in Marine Biology and Biogeochemistry

在罗伯特·基什曼博士的指导下，特拉华大学海洋科学学院获得了一笔赠款，用于购买一台流式细胞仪。这种共用仪器将供海洋科学研究人员用于广泛的研究应用，用于培训研究生和本科生，并可能用于船上使用。在生物海洋学和海洋生物学中，流式细胞术已经成为一种强大的工具，在一些应用中，它是必不可少的工具。该仪器可用于对从病毒和细菌到藻类和无脊椎动物胚胎的各种颗粒物进行计数、表征和分类。所建议的仪器之所以被选中，是因为它易于使用，维护成本低，而且耐用。它也是为数不多的带有无气溶胶分选室的流动细胞仪之一，这是分析放射性样本所必需的。对放射性样本进行分类的能力将使该设施在大西洋中部地区独一无二。潜在用途的例子包括：1.海洋微生物生态学；2.微生物特性；3.藻类生理学和浮游植物海洋学；以及4.海洋发育生物学。为了方便本科生和研究生使用所要求的仪器，将开设一门关于单细胞方法的新课程，使学生了解在单细胞水平上分析海洋生物所使用的一系列方法。本课程将提供实践培训并使用流式细胞仪。

A grant has been awarded to the University of Delaware, College of Marine Science, under the direction of Dr. Robert Kirchman to purchase a flow cytometer. This shared-use instrument will be available to ocean science researchers for a wide range of research applications, for training of graduate and undergraduate students, and possibly for shipboard use. The flow cytometry has emerged as a powerful, and in some applications, an essential tool in biological oceanography and marine biology. This instrument can be used to count, characterize and sort particles ranging from viruses and bacteria to algae and invertebrate embryos. The instrument proposed was chosen because of its ease of use, low maintenance costs, and durability. It is also one of the few flow cytometers with an aerosol-free sorting chamber, which is necessary for analyzing radioactive samples. The capability to sort radioactive samples will make this facility unique in the Mid-Atlantic region. Examples of potential uses include areas of: 1. marine microbial ecology; 2. microbe characterization; 3. algal physiology and phytoplankton oceanography; and 4. marine developmental biology. To facilitate use of the requested instrument by both undergraduate and graduate students, a new course on single-cell methods will be offered that will expose students to the array of methods used for analyzing marine organisms at the single cell level. This course will allow hands-on training and use of the flow cytometer.