ABOUT US
The Cytometry Center, headed by Dr. Amir Grau, is dedicated to provide state-of-the-art instrumentation, consultation, and expertise in flow and mass cytometry to the research and clinical community of Haifa area, including both academic and non-academic institutes and their affiliates.
Our staff and instrumentation is compatible with a wide variety of flow cytometry applications and techniques, while providing instrument support and one-on-one assistance to researchers in design flow cytometry experiments, operate the instrumentation, and to analyze their data.
We operate a nine-color high-speed CyAN ADP benchtop analyzer, two FACS Fortessa analyzers capable of measuring 17-color and an 18-color, a 13-color FACS AriaIIIu cell sorter, a new Melody cell sorter, a Bio-Plex MAGPIX Multiplex Reader, and a Helios third generation mass cytometer system capable of measuring up to 45 parameters at the single cell level.
Our team will be happy to introduce you to the technology and its utility for your R&D.
INTRODUCTION
Flow (and mass) cytometry is a powerful technology for investigating many characteristics of cell biology. Its supremacy comes mainly from the fact that it quantitatively analyzes individual cells, hence allowing the identification and characterizing of sub-populations of cells within a sample. Flow cytometry employs highly focused and extremely bright beams of light (typically from lasers) to directly reveal features of the cells, like relative size and granularity, by the way light is scattered or indirectly by attaching fluorescent antibodies to cell components or membrane and DNA binding dyes.
The power of single cell analysis is compounded by the ability to measure multiple parameters at the same time and by the ability to separate different cell populations by high speed sorting. Up to four populations of interest based on specific light scattering and fluorescent characteristics can be sorted. In this specialized type of flow cytometry, cells pass through the lasers in a chargeable sheath fluid and a decision is made as to whether the cells are required for sorting. The stream is then passed through a narrow rapidly vibrating orifice, which causes the stream to break-off into single cell containing droplets. The time between the cells passing through the laser and droplet-breakoff is stably maintained, therefore the time between seeing the desired cell and it´s encapsulation in a droplet is known, and the appropriate droplet containing the cell of interest can be charged. The droplets pass through high-voltage deflection plates and charged droplets are deflected appropriately into a collection vessel, while uncharged droplets enter the waste.
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