Highly versatile benchtop Flow Cytometry Analyzer

所要求的资金对于购买多功能流式细胞仪至关重要，这是申请人机构（蒙特利尔大学药学院）急需的。所有申请者均为独立研究活动未满一年的青年研究人员。在第一年，他们意识到他们学院可用的细胞仪（20年）不能支持他们的研究项目，并起草了这份资金申请，以购买急需的设备。******所要求的仪器是来自加拿大Beckman Coulter的CytoFLEX S流式细胞仪，这是一种高度灵活的台式流式细胞仪，提供了高度的灵活性，最先进的荧光检测技术（雪崩光电二极管检测器），并且可以精细定制，以完美满足研究人员的需求。更详细地说，选择了4种激光器（488,638,405和561 nm），可以同时分析多达9种不同的颜色。与其他台式仪器相比，除了对细胞进行更经典的流式细胞仪分析外，该仪器还可以直接分析小至80纳米的颗粒（具有紫色侧散射），这是两位申请人（合成纳米颗粒和病毒）进行研究的关键点。此外，它还提供了进一步升级的高潜力（过滤器，自动化多壁板等）。所有这些细节使所要求的仪器在几个研究领域非常理想，如开发和评估生物启发和靶向药物传递载体和诊断工具，评估拯救生命的抗菌药物的药代动力学特征和开发药代动力学模型，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特征，并确定几种疾病进展中涉及的关键生化途径。******申请人学院（<s:1>蒙特雷姆扎尔大学药学院）目前只配备了一台20年前的流式细胞仪，功能有限，无法接受，需要经常进行昂贵的修改。虽然学院校园里有流式细胞仪设备，但这项服务很昂贵（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常规访问。仪器的缺乏确实会对申请人研究计划的整体开始产生一些负面影响：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. **