Brown University - Flow Cytometry and Sorting Facility

Welcome to the Brown University Flow Cytometry and Sorting Facility. The purpose of this Facility is to provide technical assistance to Brown researchers by performing flow cytometry based analysis and sorting. The facility has a 3-laser, 15-Parameter BD FACSAria for flow sorting applications.

The Facility

The BD FACSAria is a benchtop sorter that incorporates a fixed-alignment cuvette flow cell. This new flow cell provides superior fluorescence sensitivity. The FACSAria has three air-cooled lasers at 488nm, 633nm and 407nm allowing multicolor analysis of up to15 parameters. The FACSAria can sort 1, 2, 3, or 4 populations simultaneously and is equipped with an Automated Cell Deposition Unit for sorting into multiwell plates or slides. The FACSAria is equipped with an Aerosol Management System that evacuates any aerosols from the sort chamber providing an additional level of safety for the operator and has a refrigeration system that allows cooling of the sort sample as well as the sort collection tubes. It can accept various sample input tubes including 1 mL microtubes, 12 x 75-mm test tubes, and 15 mL tubes into the sample and collection chambers

Data Analysis

Individual users are responsible for their own data analysis and backing up of data (either by transfer to USB Flashdrive or CD/DVD). The FACSAria cell sorter is run by a PC based computer system. There is only one PC workstation with Diva software for data analysis and/or for setting up sort profiles which is connected to the instrument. The facility staff is available by appointment to assist in data analysis.