Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

This application for a next generation high-throughput flow cytometer is from a cluster of four NSERC-funded applicants together with four additional users located in the interdisciplinary Michael Smith Laboratories (MSL) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The requested instrument, the Invitrogen Attune NxT coupled to an auto-sampler, will enable our team to perform and develop a broad series of assays for projects in natural science, in which large particles and different types of cells (bacteria, yeast, plant and mammalian) are quantified based on surface markers and/or fluorescent proteins. Currently, there is no high-throughput or sufficiently fast and sensitive equipment within the MSL that supports the proposed applications. Instead, the different team members have worked either with an outdated instrument that can no longer be updated or with instruments distantly located in the UBC flow facility, which precludes many of the proposed applications for practical reasons. Therefore, the requested instrument will be key, both to sustain the current programs and to facilitate the development of innovative approaches by a cluster of researchers who have clearly demonstrated excellence in their respective fields. Collectively, the applicants and main associated users have generated over 250 publications in the past 5 years. The requested instrument will be central for the training of highly qualified personnel (HQP) in biological sciences. MSL values equity, diversity and inclusion, and offers an environment with a great diversity of trainees both in term of gender, ethnical background and education. There are over 300 trainees in the MSL, including 48 in the applicants' and 82 in the main users' laboratories. We anticipate that the requested flow cytometer will participate to the training of a large pool of 75-125 researchers in the next five years that will be beneficial for the biotechnology sector. ***********