Expanding multiparameter analyses of single cells and small particles with a 5-laser spectrally enabled flow cytometer

对与我们的免疫系统相关的基础“发现”科学的投资，支撑了20世纪的“疫苗时代”和正在进行的21世纪癌症、关节炎和湿疹等疾病治疗的革命，现在正在为更有效的疫苗和炎症性肠病和1型糖尿病的新疗法铺平道路。疫苗技术的进步对结束Covid大流行至关重要，新型“免疫疗法”正在提高数百万患有慢性限制生命疾病（包括无法手术或对化疗和放疗有耐药性的癌症）的患者的预期寿命和生活质量。尽管在基础研究上的投资，如本提案中所描述的，需要时间才能使社会受益，但如果我们要继续开发新药和治疗方法，控制传染病的传播，并在我们越来越长的生命中保持健康和多产，那么了解构成健康和功能性免疫系统的细胞和分子过程是必不可少的。为了详细研究这些过程，研究人员需要能够从他们生成的每个生物样本中提取尽可能多的信息。我们获得的信息越详细，我们就越能理解这些过程。反过来，这将使我们能够制定更有效的战略（为更大比例的受影响者提供更好的治疗结果和更少的副作用），以增强和维持发育、衰老和感染期间的健康。我们打算买一台新机器，使我们能够在每个样品中测量多达50条不同的信息。通过并行分析多个样本，我们可以从单个人、动物或实验中获得成百上千条信息。这些样品是宝贵的资源。最大限度地提高我们从每个样本中获得的信息量，不仅可以最大限度地减少我们需要采集的样本的大小和数量（这既省钱又更道德），而且至关重要的是，可以成倍地提高我们的理解水平。

Investments in fundamental "discovery" science as it relates to our immune system have underpinned both the twentieth century "age of vaccines" and the ongoing twenty-first century revolution in the treatment of diseases such as cancer, arthritis and eczema, and are now paving the way for more effective vaccines and for new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease and type 1 diabetes. Advances in vaccine technology were essential in bringing the Covid pandemic to its end and novel "immunotherapies" are increasing life expectancy and quality of life for millions of people with chronic life-limiting diseases, including cancers which are inoperable or resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Although investment in fundamental research, such as that described in this proposal, can take time to benefit society, understanding the cellular and molecular processes that comprise a healthy and functional immune system is essential if we are to continue to develop new drugs and treatments, control the spread of infectious diseases and remain healthy and productive throughout our ever-longer lives. In order to study these processes in detail, researchers need to be able to extract as much information as possible from each biological sample they generate. The more detailed the information we can get, the better we will understand these processes. This, in turn, will allow us to develop more effective strategies (better therapeutic outcomes with fewer side effects, for a larger proportion of those affected) to enhance and sustain health during development, ageing and infection. We are proposing to buy a new machine that will enable us to measure up to 50 different pieces of information per sample. By analysing multiple samples in parallel, we can obtain hundreds and thousands of pieces of information from a single person, animal or experiment. These samples are a precious resource. Maximising the amount of information we get from each one not only minimises the size and number of samples we need to take (which saves money and is more ethical) but, crucially, exponentially increases our levels of understanding.