Institute of Child Health

Flow Cytometry Core Facility

• Home
• Contacts and Online Booking
• Using The Facility
• Charges and Conditions of Use
• Introduction to Flow Cytometry
• Selecting Fluorochromes for FCM
• Instruments
• Flow Cytometry Applications
• General Guidelines
• Cell Sorting Guidelines
• Analysis Guidelines
• Biosafety
• Protocols
• Publications

Flow Cytometry Core Facility at University College London Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK

UCL ICH/GOS Flow Cytometry Core Facility provides state of the art instrumentation and expertise for cell analysis and sorting.

• Book or check availability of a flow cytometer (ICH and UCL registered users only)

Cell analysers

The facility has four cell analysers:

1. BD LSRII with four lasers (350, 405, 488, and 633 nm) and 19 parameters (17 colours) detection capability
2. CyAn ADP with two lasers (488 and 633 nm) and 9 parameters (7 colours) detection capability
3. BD FACSArray (SORP) with 2 lasers (488 and 633 nm) and 4 colours (FITC and PE on the blue laser and APC and APC-Cy7 on the red diode).
4. BD FACSCalibur with 2 lasers (488 and 633 nm) and  4 colours (FITC, PE and PECy5 or PECy7 on the blue laser and APC on the red diode)
   

Cell sorters

The facility offers cell sorting on the latest technology from Beckman Coulter and Becton Dickinson, the high speed cell sorters MoFlo XDP and FACSAria III.

MoFlo XDP sorter is equipped with three lasers:

• true UV laser (350 nm) enabling 2 colours detection
• argon blue laser (488 nm), allowing 5 colours detection
• red diode (647 nm) enabling 2 colours detection.

FACSAria III is equipped with 5 lasers:

• near UV (375 nm) and Violet (405 nm), which are co linear and can accommodate up to 6 colours.
• argon blue laser (488 nm) allowing detection of FITC and one more fluorochrome excitable by this laser
• yellow/green laser (561 nm) allowing 5 colours detection
• red laser (647 nm) allowing 3 colours detection.

Services available include:

• cell sorting
• cloning: single cell sorting
  
• data acquisition, analysis and interpretation
• user training
• advice on sample preparation
  
• user assistance and machine troubleshooting
• help with design of experiments
• sourcing of reagents and techniques; finding alternative approaches
• help with data preparation for presentation and publication

We are also open to collaboration.

The facility is located on Level 3 of the Camelia Botnar Laboratories.

It is open 8.00am to 11.00pm, 7 days a week.

Facility staff are available Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 6.00pm.

Please note that sorts cannot be booked before 11.00am because the cell sorter requires a calibration period before use. However, early morning (10am) and evening sorts are available by prior arrangement.

Guidelines for the use of the facility are provided on these web pages. Please ensure you have read the relevant guidelines to maximise the success and validity of your experiment.