Maintaining and Enhancing Flow Cytometry Capacity for Biological Research at the University of Guelph

维持和增强圭尔夫大学生物学研究的流式细胞术能力

• 批准号: RTI-2023-00118
• 负责人: Wootton, Sarah
• 金额: $ 10.93万
• 依托单位: University of Guelph
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=761933
• 关键词: Maintaining; Enhancing; Flow; Cytometry; Capacity

Description of equipment requested: This application is for the purchase of a 21-colour flow cytometry machine. We use flow cytometry to rapidly and simultaneously identify thousands of different cells coming from an animal's blood or tissue. These could be cells from an animal in which we are testing a new vaccine and need to see how its immune cells, or T cells, have responded. Cells are put into the flow cytometer where they go past lasers which "zap" them. Specific cell types "break" the laser beam in specific ways, which allows us to classify all the cell groups in a complex mixture. But also, cells like T cells that have responded to a vaccine have different proteins on them than cells that have not responded. We can attach "cell markers" to those proteins that are like name tags. These name tags fluoresce when they are zapped by the laser. We know whether the T cells have responded to the vaccine because cells without the name tag (the ones that didn't respond) go past the laser without fluorescing. In medicine and science, it is important to be able to analyze complex groups of cells with as many name tags as possible - 21-colour flow cytometry is a very powerful tool that allows us to do that. It lets us analyze more cells from a single sample, using fewer cells from the animal, so we arrive at a diagnosis or an important scientific conclusion much more quickly. There are 8 cutting-edge scientists and >30 students, plus other researchers from across the University of Guelph that use our current flow cytometer, but it has only 8-colour capacity and breaks down frequently. So, we are requesting funds to purchase a state-of-the-art 21-colour flow cytometer to replace our old machine. It is the Cytekr Northern Lights multicolour flow cytometer, and will be housed in the Department of Pathobiology's "core facility". This facility has dedicated technical and research staff to maintain the machine and to help meet the many different uses that our NSERC-funded researchers have for it. This cutting-edge flow cytometer will increase the quality of our research and training of our students, which will allow us to compete globally, but will also benefit both the animals and people of Canada. Nature of work to be supported: This flow cytometer is an essential research tool for identifying vaccine-specific T cell lymphocyte responses in mice, pigs and sheep, for characterizing cancerous and altered immune cells from birds, cats, dogs, horses and cattle, for understanding what causes asthma or loss of control of bacterial infections, and how tumours hijack the body to create their own blood supply. Anticipated outcomes and benefits to Canada: This research is key to developing immune-based interventions and viral vectored vaccines, improving diagnosis of several types of cancer, testing novel therapies for cancer and asthma, and for defining immune control of bacterial infections, which benefits both the animals and people of Canada.

所需设备说明： 本申请用于购买 21 色流式细胞仪。我们使用流式细胞术快速、同时识别来自动物血液或组织的数千种不同细胞。这些细胞可能来自我们正在测试新疫苗的动物，需要观察其免疫细胞或 T 细胞如何反应。细胞被放入流式细胞仪中，在那里它们会经过激光“轰击”它们。特定的细胞类型以特定的方式“破坏”激光束，这使我们能够对复杂混合物中的所有细胞组进行分类。而且，对疫苗做出反应的 T 细胞等细胞上的蛋白质与未做出反应的细胞不同。我们可以将“细胞标记”附加到那些类似于姓名标签的蛋白质上。这些名牌在被激光照射时会发出荧光。我们知道 T 细胞是否对疫苗有反应，因为没有名称标签的细胞（没有反应的细胞）通过激光时不会发出荧光。在医学和科学领域，能够分析具有尽可能多的名称标签的复杂细胞群非常重要 - 21 色流式细胞术是一种非常强大的工具，可以帮助我们做到这一点。它使我们能够使用更少的动物细胞从单个样本中分析更多的细胞，因此我们可以更快地得出诊断或重要的科学结论。有 8 名尖端科学家和超过 30 名学生，再加上圭尔夫大学的其他研究人员使用我们当前的流式细胞仪，但它只有 8 色容量，并且经常出现故障。因此，我们正在申请资金购买一台最先进的 21 色流式细胞仪来更换我们的旧机器。它是 Cytekr Northern Lights 多色流式细胞仪，将安置在病理生物学系的“核心设施”中。该设施拥有专门的技术和研究人员来维护机器，并帮助满足我们 NSERC 资助的研究人员对其的多种不同用途。这种尖端的流式细胞仪将提高我们的研究和学生培训的质量，这将使我们能够在全球范围内竞争，但也将使加拿大的动物和人民受益。支持的工作性质：该流式细胞仪是一种重要的研究工具，用于识别小鼠、猪和羊的疫苗特异性 T 细胞淋巴细胞反应，用于表征来自鸟类、猫、狗、马和牛的癌性和改变的免疫细胞，了解导致哮喘或细菌感染失控的原因，以及肿瘤如何劫持身体以产生自己的血液供应。预期结果和对加拿大的好处：这项研究对于开发基于免疫的干预措施和病毒载体疫苗、改善几种癌症的诊断、测试癌症和哮喘的新疗法以及确定细菌感染的免疫控制至关重要，这对双方都有利加拿大的动物和人民。