Expertise and Equipment

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Expertise

Through a variety of educational outreach activities, OSUCCC members are introduced to new instrumentation, technology and methodologies being developed at Ohio State and other key allied organizations.

• Co-Director: Kevin Weller
• Co-Director: Bei Liu, MD, MPH
• Lab Manager: Bryan McElwain, BS, MS, MBA

Bei Liu, MD, MPH, is an NCI-funded cancer immunologist with decades of experience and expertise using flow cytometry to identify changes in immune cell populations to discern favorable or non-favorable responses to cancer treatments in human subjects or animal models.

Kevin P. Weller is a flow cytometry specialist who has previously worked for flow cytometry industry leaders (BD Immunocytometry Systems, BD Pharmingen) and managed multiple flow cytometry shared resources (Vanderbilt, U of Chicago-Illinois).

Bryan McElwain, BS, MS, MBA, is the FCSR lab manager. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from St. Bonaventure University and his MS from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He studied cytometry during his master's thesis on immunology at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Bryan has been managing the BRT core facility since 2004, gaining professional experience in designing, consulting and training facility on cytometry applications, experimental design and instrument training. He has expertise on many legacy cytometers and all the cutting-edge instruments in the FCSR.

Oliva Green, BS, has been trained to operate and assist users on each instrument in the FCSR. She advises users on proper controls and experiment optimization techniques and provides any troubleshooting needed as users operate instrumentation.

Instrumentation and Equipment

The FCSR currently hosts a wide array of cytometers and cell sorting instrumentation. Below are some comprehensive tables to help select the appropriate instrument for your experiment.

Sorting Instruments:

Cytek Aurora CS: 64 channel, 6-way cell sorter, allows sorting of highly parametric flow cytometry samples that has been previously impossible. Immune Monitoring panels that have been developed and optimized on the Aurora flow cytometer can be directly ported to the Aurora CS for sorting of rare cell subsets for further downstream analysis on multiply platforms

Digital acquisition for event rates of up to 70,000 events/second (generally cells are sorted no faster than 25,000 events/second).

Two, four and sux-way bulk sorting device for a variety of tube sizes. The instrument has an Automated Cell Deposition Unit (ACDU) for sorting to multi-well plates or microscope slides. Aerosol management is integrated into the system and it is enclosed in a Biobubble hepa filtered enclosure to meet current ISAC BSL2 sorting guidelines.

Becton Dickinson FACSAria IIu: The Aria II has four lasers, a 488 nm, 633 nm, 355 nm, and 561 nm for detection of up to eleven colors. These lasers allow the Aria III to perform applications, including side populations, using Hoescht dyes, fluorescent proteins like mCherry and cell ploidy. Both are capable of sorting up to four populations at a time and plate sorting. 

Analysis Instruments:

Cytek Northern Lights: Full spectrum unmixing flow cytometer with 3 lasers, 38 FL APD detectors, vacuum fluidics, small particle detection using Violet laser SSC, and capable of 27+ colors. The Northern Lights is a game changer in performance yet the easiest system to learn and teach since no filters are ever needed, compensation is very simplified, and the software is very user friendly.

Becton Dickinson SORP Fortessa: Equipped with five laser lines (355nm, 405nm, 488nm, 561nm and 640nm) and is capable of detecting 18-color parameters. The instrument is also equipped with a High Throughput Sampler (HTS) that is compatible with 96-well plates as well as 384-well plates, for fully automated sample acquisition. 

Amnis ImageStreamX Mark II Imaging Cytometer: Equipped with four lasers and imaging capabilities for up to 9-color, two Brightfield, and one Scatter parameters simultaneously. The ImageStream combines the speed and sensitivity of flow cytometry with the detailed imagery and insight of microscopy. The ImageStream allows for extensive range of applications such as co-localization, shape change, internalization, advanced cell cycle analysis, etc.