5-Laser Cell Sorter

• Subject Area: Microbiology, Virology and Immunology ; Basic Research in Biology and Medicine
• Term: Funded in 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 559318574

The FCC (Flow Cytometry Core) constitutes the central technology platform for cell sorting and analysis of the Research Campus at the University Hospital of Cologne. The Facility emerged during structural adjustments from the 2008 founded Central Cell Sorting Facility. The Facility supports all Research Groups of the Life Science Campus of the Medical and Natural Sciences Faculty of the University of Cologne independent of their group affiliation or site. The FCC will overcome the existing bottleneck within the research infrastructure to alleviate the access for scientists of various disciplines to this progressive technology. Furthermore, one major goal of the FCC lies within the scientific exchange as well as the support of research projects with state-of-the-art flow cytometry analyses. The FCC represents the own central unit for flow cytometry cell sorting and analyses for scientists on the Cologne Campus. The actual conventional Flow Cytometry Sorters lack, besides a high optical resolution of modern Flow Cytometry Sorters, additional Lasers, to enable the sorting of big state-of-the-art immunophenotyping panels. Due to these reasons as well as increased technical malfunctions, the Flow Cytometers were taken out of service in 2023. In the course of the new conceptualization of the FCC, Flow Cytometry Analysis techniques will be thoroughly modernized and expanded. The herein applied Spectral Flow Cytometry Sorter containing 5 Lasers enables the direct implementation of complex color-assays of a cell sorting panel to perform further downstream assays of the isolated sample material. In addition, the Analyzer should be equipped with a high throughput automated sample loader to sort cells into diverse microtiter plates as well as flow cytometry tubes by efficiently isolating either bulk or single cells in cell culture plates by index sorting and multiway sorting out of six sorting beams. Furthermore, the sorter should possess a permanent cooling of sample material to enhance the quality of sorting significantly. In addition, the herein applied Sorter provides the unique possibility of imaging during the sorting process which enables an efficient QC and thereby saves time by directly recognizing and sorting only viable cells. Conditioned by the scientific administration of the FCC the facility intends to enhance a stronger connection to the scientific environment and to embrace a meaningful integration of Flow Cytometry within research activities of the Cologne Campus. To guarantee a long-term development and functionality of the facility, the unit will be managed by a technical administrator with longtime experience and profound know-how in Flow Cytometry. Thereby, the development and conduct of new technologies and procedures will be promoted and the quality control within the facility will be maintained to ensure that the FCC will be state-of-the-art permanently.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: 5-Laser Zellsortiergerät
• Instrumentation Group: 3500 Zellzähl- und Klassiergeräte (außer Blutanalyse), Koloniezähler
• Applicant Institution: Universität zu Köln
• Leader: Professor Dr. Hamid Kashkar