BrisSynBio has access to the equipment and expertise housed in the Flow Cytometry Facility. This comprises high speed digital benchtop cytometers for analysis and a state of the art Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter (FACS) for isolating populations of interest from a wide variety of cells or other particles. Aseptically sorted cells can be cultured for downstream studies or used for nucleic-acid profiling. From human cells to algae, bacteria and yeast, the flow cytometers provide analyses to identify and purify subsets of cells to study processes in the human body and in single-celled organisms.

Flow cytometry provides a technique for obtaining information about cells or other particles in a suitable buffer based on laser light scatter and fluorescence emission by bound fluorochromes. This is performed using laminar flow to centre the suspension of single cells or particles as they pass through the laser beam(s). Equipment available includes:

• BD Influx high speed 16-parameter fluorescence activated cell sorter. This contains 4 lasers and 16 optical parameters, allowing detection of multiple fluorescent reporters (e.g. CFP, GFP, mRFP, mCherry, tdTomato, mKate, mPlum).

Applications that may benefit from access to this equipment includes:

• Construction and analysis of designed gene regulatory networks in bacteria.
• Construction and analysis of peptide-based nano-cages.
• The generation and analysis of membrane-bound nano-reactors.

The Flow Cytometry Facility is located in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, in the Biomedical Sciences Building.