Acquisition of high-parameter fluorescent-activated cell sorter analyzer

ABSTRACT We are requesting funds to purchase a BD FACSymphony S6 SE Spectral Cell Sorting Platform (hereafter ‘Symphony S6 SE’) to advance our clinical and translational research at The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research (FIMR). The FIMR is the research arm of Northwell Health, the largest healthcare system in New York and home to approximately 75 research labs, 3,000 clinical research studies and 5,000 researchers. The Flow Cytometry and Imaging Core Facility (Flow Core) is the only resource that provides cell sorting services to researchers at Northwell Health. We are requesting funds to purchase a Symphony S6 SE cell sorter that can sort 6 different populations using up to 50 different parameters, a capability we do not currently have. The Symphony S6 would allow our researchers to isolate specific, rare cell populations that require high-parameter sorting with complex gating strategies. This instrument has low signal to noise ratio, sensitive PMT detectors finely tuned to the appropriate wavelengths and optimal breakoff and pausing technology to ensure purity of sample. The Symphony S6 SE offers flexibility in types of collection tubes or plates and the ability to change collection tubes without stopping the sort. The Symphony S6 SE cell sorter also has an integrated biosafety cabinet with an independent aerosol management system which is particularly advantageous for sorting human cells and virally infected cell populations. This proposal features highly relevant clinical and translational projects aimed at discovering molecular pathways leading to novel treatments, with higher efficiency and fewer side effects in autoimmune disease, cancer, and hematological disorders that are being studied in 8 NIH-funded projects. Researchers will use the instrument to obtain information from sorted cells for downstream applications with greater efficiency, and additional analysis parameters unavailable from the cell sorters currently operating at the FIMR. Furthermore, the 6-way sorting capability of the Symphony S6 is critical to maximizing the use of precious patient samples as it permits simultaneous sorting of 6 cell populations, including rare cell populations. Our current instruments are soon to be retired and are restricted to sorting 4 populations, with less high-resolution, necessitating the availability of more starting material.