S8 FACS Discovery

There is a requirement for two S8 FACS for two departments of the university split across tow colleges, CMVM (college of medical and veterinary medicine), marked as requirement 1 and CSE (college of science and engineering), marked as requirement 2.

Requirement 1 CMVM.

Researchers at the Institute for Regeneration & Repair (IRR) at the University of Edinburgh, the largest global institute dedicated to research in inflammation, regeneration and repair, seek to understand the cellular and molecular basis of human diseases to identify new therapeutic targets. IRR unites three Centres for Inflammation Research, Regenerative Medicine and Reproductive Health.

To understand fundamental disease processes, the cellular composition of human tissues needs mapping to determine how different cell types communicate with one another and how this dialogue changes in the context of disease. This endeavour has been progressed by technological advances, including the ability to determine the nature of cells dissociated from solid tissue at a single cell level. These advances, collectively referred to as ‘single cell multi-omics’ have transformed how cell lineages are defined. No longer can one or two surface proteins define a cell. Instead, multi-parameter, high dimensional analysis must be used to determine cell populations and the different behavioural states that these lineages can adopt in health, disease and tissue regeneration and repair.

Requirement 2 CSE.

The Discover S8 will be installed in the Institute of Immunology & Infection Research (IIIR), part of the College of Science and Engineering, on the Kings Buildings campus of the University of Edinburgh. It will be available to researchers across the College of Science and throughout UoE, including the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine and the Roslin and Moredun Institutes. It will complement existing equipment in IIIR, in CSE and in affiliated Institutes: we have recently installed a Sony ID7000 spectral analyser in IIIR, which allows us to measure 45 fluorescent parameters on individual cells. This new purchase, the Discover S8, enables us to assess those same 45 parameters and then physically separate the cells based on their measurements, facilitating exciting downstream applications such as transcriptional, proteomic and functional analysis.

The imaging capability of the Discover S8 fits well with the imaging expertise in the CSE, especially that within the Discovery Research Platform for Hidden Cell Biology, with research questions, analysis techniques and training plans spanning both platforms.