Ragon Institute Immunology Core-Flow Cytometry

The mission of the Ragon Institute Immunology Core is to bring the latest technologies to bear on fundamental molecular and cell biological questions pertaining to human disease. As an MGH core facility, it serves the greater MGH community in all aspects of flow cytometry, cell sorting, advanced microscopy and image analysis. There is also high-speed, flow-based imaging of cell populations in suspension using the ImageStreamX MkII by Amnis. 

Personnel/Contact Information:

Director: Michael Waring
Email: mwaring@partners.org

Facilities and Equipment:

Visit our microscopy page for imaging: https://researchcores.partners.org/ragon2/about

Flow Cytometers (600 Main Street, room 333 and 334, Cambridge MA 02139):

  • Two 5 Laser FACSymphony A5 cytometers (BD Biosciences) with 355, 405, 488, 561, and 640 excitation lines, up to 29 colors, and the HTS option for acquiring from 96 well plates.
  • Two 5 Laser LSR Fortessas (BD Biosciences) with 355, 405, 488, 561, and 640 excitation lines, up to 18 colors, and the HTS option for acquiring from 96 well plates.
  • 3 Laser LSR2 (BD Biosciences) with 405, 488, and 633 excitation, 16 colors, and the HTS option for acquiring from 96 well plates.
  • Cytek Aurora spectral cytometer with 5 lasers for acquistion of 20+ colors with multiple sample loading options.
  • Cytek ImagestreamX Mark II (Imagestream) An imaging flow cytometer with two cameras, 12 channels, 405, 488, 561 and 642 nm lasers (along with a 785 nm laser for darkfield SSC). Equipped with 20x, 40x and 60x objectives. Can do extended depth of focus for convolution/deconvolution of images. Usually load 30ul per sample at a time. Capable of capturing up to 60,000 images per second (with binning). Use with IDEAS analysis software.

  • 5 laser SORP FACSAria Fusion cell sorter (BD Biosciences) with 350, 405, 488, 561 and 633 excitation, 18 colors, housed within a biosafety cabinet for sorting of human and infectious samples requiring up to BL2+ containment. The sorter is run by core personnel only, and no training is provided in its operation.
  • 4 laser FACSAria Fusion cell sorter (BD Biosciences) with 405, 488, 561, and 640 excitation, housed in a biosafety cabinet for BL2+ sorting.
  • 4 laser SONY SH800 cell sorter (Sony Biotech) with 405, 488, 561, and 640 excitation and 6 colors, with 2 way bulk sorting or plate sorting.

Additional Equipment:

  • BioPlex 3D (BioRad) and Flexmap 3D (Luminex) XMap readers
  • Computer workstations for data analysis and access to platform-specific software.

Services:

  • New users are required to attend our introduction to flow cytometry, "Just the FACS", as well as an instrument orientation session.
  • Individual training in the use of the analyzers in the core is provided so that users are able to work independently with the systems.
  • Assisted use of the systems is provided until user is proficient, and all sorting is run by core personnel.
  • The core continues to evolve to suit the needs of the Ragon Institute and the greater MGH community. 

Getting started:

To access our flow cytometry and sorting resources, please email Michael with a description of what resources you were interested in utilizing.

Departmental Web Links:

Ragon Institute Core Services home page: https://ragoninstitute.org/centralized-research-services/

Departmental link:

https://ragoninstitute.org/research-service/flow-cytometry-core/

https://ragoninstitute.org/research-service/microscopy-core/