News Archives

Archives - 2011

This page will house old news and updates pertaining to the Flow Core here at the University of Rochester.

21 September 2011

Users:

The instructions for connecting to the new transfer share are now posted in the library. With the changing of the transfer service, the old pipeline should no longer be used and it will disappear shortly as well.

15 September 2011

Training lecture dates until the end of October have been posted. See you at the lecture!

7 July 2011

We have decided to branch out to other areas of the internet!

Now you can like us on Facebook!

6 July 2011

Fine sirs and madams of the flow community,

The instruments in the core have had their suggested voltages updated as a result of a new bead lot used for QC. Instrument pages now reflect the new values to use as of yesterday. Also, the newest baseline reports for each instrument can be found in the library if needed.

16 June 2011

The URMC FCC will be hosting a one-day training session on July 12th using FlowJo
software, run by a TreeStar applications scientist. There will be a morning session and an afternoon session.

You can register for either or both sessions at:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FlowJo

Registration will be capped at 20 people for each session, and priority will be given to labs who have registered with the FLS server.

1 June 2011

Due to popular demand, there will be a training lecture this coming Monday, June 6th. Same room and details as always, so head over to the Training page for more information.

26 May 2011

Dear users,

Since this coming Monday is a holiday there will be no training lecture until June 13.

-The Staff

9 May 2011

The time has come! Dr Bunsen Honeydew's esteemed assistant Beaker has arrived and is now operational. You can now find links to each FACSCantoII on the Instruments page. Configurations for each are different, so please be aware when yo are signing up to use one or the other.

4 May 2011

This message is in regards to the UR Cytometry mail that Tim sent out in the prior weeks:

PLEASE NOTE-

In the near future, a new policy will be rolled out for the transfer pipeline. Any files older than two weeks will automatically be deleted. Please be aware of this and remove any files that you might need to prevent any issues when this happens.

28 April 2011

Tim recently taught a lecture for a graduate level course on Statistics and Cytometry. it has been posted to the Lecture page for those that are interested.

18 April 2011

Tim's next lecture in the Success in Cytometry series has been posted to the lecture page. Be sure to come here it live tomorrow Thursday, April 21st at 9:30 am in the Northeastern Conference room (1-9535/1-9525)

4 April 2011

Fozzie Bear has been fixed and there are new suggested voltages listed on his page. Be sure to check them out before your next run.

24 March 2011

Dearest Users,

Our esteemed Dr Bunsen Honeydew recently had some work done, and as a result new suggested voltages have been posted. Make sure to check the Analysis page to see what has been updated.

-The Staff

14 March 2011

New sort policy states that anything scheduled within 24 hours of a time slot must now be done through a staff member. Please call the core at x3-5085 to set up time if needed.

Gonzo was also on the fritz this morning. As a result, the database has been redone. This may lead to Application Specific Setting issues. Please contact Matt Cochran or Tim if you have any issues or concerns.

Happy Monday!

1 March 2011

The training lectures for the months of March and April have been listed. An upcoming lecture series by our core's director will be posted in the coming weeks so stay tuned for that.

5 January 2011

Happy new Year all! An exciting new training opportunity has just come to our attention and we would like to pass this information along to you. Please see the attached flyer for information.

Archives - 2010

27 December 2010

The voltages for all analytical instruments have been updated to reflect the recent change in CST bead lot. This means all voltages will be different from those use previously. Please be careful when using old experiments.

11 November 2010

As a note to users, all samples brought to the core must come in secondary containment. Styrofoam is not considered containment. This means even if samples are BSL-1, they must be contained properly.

Thank you.

9 November 2010

Two messages from Tim:

We are considering offering a week-long course at the URMC for
investigators to get trained in flow cytometry. The course would cover cell
preparation methods, data acquisition and analysis with flowjo, as well as
an introduction to others techniques (such as Luminex, the imagestream, cell
sorting and the like). Lecture topics would cover all aspects of flow
cytometry - from how the instrument works to designing experiments and many
topics in between. This course would cost about $400, to cover our costs,
and would be limited to 16 students.

The first course would be offered in January, if there is sufficient
interest. To gauge that interest, please contact me if you are interested,
and the level of interest (definitely take course, probably take course or
just interested) by November 19th.

The draft course outline can be found here.

Also:

I am pleased to announce that there will be a seminar on the new CyTOF cytometer on Friday, December 10th, at 12 noon in K-207 (2-6408). Dr. Vladimir Baranova will give a short talk on the technical aspects of this new technique. This will be followed by a longer biological applications talk by Dr. Olga Ornatsky.

This exciting new technology is one being considered by the flow core as a target for a Shared Instrument Grant in 2011, and the Rochester Human Immunology Center is working with the FCC and DVS (the makers of the CyTOF). There are only a few labs currently using this technology, and it brings the possibility of high-end (30+) marker detection to cytometry.

The abstract for the talk can be found here.

1 November 2010

The instruments page has been updated to better categorize the guidelines for our instruments.

The useful links page has also been updated and categorized.

26 October 2010

The sort request form has been removed from the Forms page. Instead of filling out the form, please know what Fluorochromes you are using and bring the list with you to each appointment. Thanks!

17 September 2010

The suggested voltages for Fozzie Bear have been updated to reflect recent instrument maintenance. Please be aware of these changes.

1 July 2010

Greetings all! With the new fiscal year starting today, the new hourly rates are in effect. Please head to the billing page to see the new rates.

15 March 2010

The lecture for Wednesday is posted.

23 February 2010

The lecture on compensation is up for tomorrow!

16 February 2010

The new biosafety recommendations page is now listed on the left. Please be sure to review all the information on the page. Be sure to contact a staff member if you have any questions.

15 February 2010

Wednesday's lecture is up and available for download on the Lectures page.

9 February 2010

The notes for Wednesday's lecture are now ready for download on the Lectures page.

5 February 2010

All of the instrument rooms have a phone now. The numbers are listed on the locations page.

2 February 2010

The lecture notes for tomorrow morning are posted on the Lectures page.

1 February 2010

A bit more information has been added to the sorting page and one additional guideline pertaining to the analytical instruments has been posted.

4 January 2010

With a new year comes new instrument locations and new baselines! All baselines, recommended voltages, and instrument locations have changed. Please see their respective pages for all the need to know.

Archives - 2009

25 November 2009

Please welcome our two new staff members, Ashley Adams and Jason Curran. They will be with us over in the Flow Core from now on.

20 November 2009

The training lecture for 23 November is being postponed a week to 30 November. Sorry for any inconvenience. Also, there will be a special lecture on 1 December on FRET presented by Dr Gabor Horvath in room 3-9654 at 1pm. The Lectures page will have details as they become available.

19 November 2009

With the holidays coming, there will be certain things going on around the Flow Core and RHIC. Please be aware of these things, especially those mentioned below:

FACSCalibur retires 7 December.
The LSRIIs in the RHIC move to the Flow Core 28-29 December. They will be down on these two days.
Aria down 23 December through 4 January 2010.

18 November 2009

The lecture is up for today. Apologies for it being up far later than expected.

10 November 2009

Hello dear users! The guidelines for after hours use have been updated, so please make sure to get to the Instruments page and see what is new. Also, the Cyntellect seminar is tomorrow afternoon in the Louise Slaughter conference room. Check it out on the Lectures page.

26 October 2009

There is now a .pdf available for the Guava demo on November 3rd. Head to the Lecture page to download it.

7 October 2009

The lecture from this morning on multichromatic panel design can now be found on the Lecture page.

21 September 2009

Greetings all! We would like to inform all users that the 11 color LSRII in the RHIC is now a 12-color LSRII. A third PMT has been added to the violet laser. Please see the Analysis page for new voltages and filter configurations.

3 September 2009

Our newest instrument, the Amnis ImageStream GenX, is here and open for use! The relevant information is under Instruments > Imaging. Also, do not hesitate to ask Tim or Dave if you have any questions.

28 August 2009

The new Wednesday lecture series kicks off starting the 9th of September. See the right side for topics, location, and time. Also, the Accuri C6 cytometer is here! Please contact Tim if you would like more information about this instrument.

3 August 2009

The slides for the Introduction to Flow Lecture can be found on the Training page or by following this link.

29 June 2009

The FACSAria cell sorter has been moved to it's new home in the 3-4100 area! It is available for use again starting today.

27 May 2009

The sort form and guidelines for nozzle switching have been changed. Please be sure to familiarize yourself with the new information and the new sort form. As always, please let us know if you have any problems.

16 April 2009

The linear range of all PMTs and the suggested voltage is now listed for each instrument available in the Flow Core and RHIC. Please see the Analysis page for the values on each instrument.

14 April 2009

Oh boy, pictures! Tim's lecture for Thursday is now posted for your downloading enjoyment.

9 April 2009

The new fluorchrome naming policy was rolled out this past Monday. Please see the link for the new list in the library and of course do not hesitate to see any staff if you have a problem.

3 April 2009

The lecture for this Thursday's installment of Tim's lecture series is now available on the Lectures page!

1 April 2009

Tim's lecture for tomorrow is posted on the Lectures page. Have a look!

Also: There is now a Training link! This is the resource we will use from now on for all training information.

25 March 2009

The lecture for tomorrow has been posted. Grab it from the lectures page!

18 March 2009

The lecture for tomorrow's presentation by Tim has been posted on the lectures page. Get it while it's hot!

Addendum: I am sorry if anyone has tried getting the .pdf of the lecture for tomorrow, but the link was inadvertently broken most of the afternoon. It is now fixed. Thank you.

10 Febuary 2009

Dates for the lecture series have been posted. See the Lectures page for all the dates to save.

5 Febuary 2009

Lectures will now be posted to the Lectures link located in the navigation pane to the left of the page. Upcoming lectures will be announced here, as well as a backlog of all previous lectures, each available for download. Check back often as updates become available!

14 January 2009

The forms should once again be behind the firewall and working. We apologize for the downtime with the forms, but everything should be back to normal once again.

8 January 2009

As a follow-up to the UR Cytometry email sent by Tim, it should be noted that attendance of at least one of the listed lectures is mandatory for all users! If you do not attend, your account will be suspended. Please make sure you can come to one of these 30 minute lectures. Thank you.

5 January 2009

As a note to all users, the sort form, new user form, and cancellation form have been moved behind the firewall to prevent misuse. You will now need to have access to the Intranet by either being on a secure connection at the University or by using the VPN client to connect securely from a remote location. Thank you.

UPDATE: There is currently a problem with submission of the forms. If this happens, please let us know when you tried to submit the form and what browser you used during the process.

Archives - 2008

29 December 2008 - A message from Tim:

I am pleased to announce that the move from MBX 1-11314 to 3-4100 has gone smoothly. The 12-color LSR-II, FACSCanto, FACSCalibur and Imagestream all survived the trip and appear to be working well. We are in the process of validating and characterizing the instruments after their move and realignments.

Starting this week, we will have limited hours in the lab, based on staffing and such.

One important issue that is being addressed now is access to the 3-4100 area. At present and through at least 1/8/2009, the flow core will operate under reduced hours (9 am to 5:30 pm). The reason for this is that we do not have card-swipe access to our facility yet, and do not have sufficient keys to provide individual labs access. We are working with the keyshop to resolve this issue and hope to have card-swipe access on the main door and two analytical rooms (3-4151 and 3-4141) within 2 weeks.

Cell sorting will still be occurring in MRBX 1-11314, and we are working with Janet Ives to develop the new protocols that will be in place to comply with the IBC guidelines. Once those are finalized, I will notify the community as to them.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly.

Regards,

Attention Flow Core users:

The core will be shutting down to move on December 22nd. ALL of the instruments in MRBX 1-11314 will be offline for that week. If there are any concerns, please talk to Tim sooner than later so that no problems that arise.

As a note to all Core and HIC user: There is now a reservation system for the HTS units that work in combination with any of the LSRIIs. These can be reserved in the same manner as an instrument found on the online calendar.

An update on the location of the Flow Core:

Renovations to the 3-4100 area are underway as of September 22nd. More information about a possible moving day will be posted as the time draws closer.

A note to users of the FACSVantage instruments:

These will be going offline as of August 1, 2008. Please make sure to familiarize yourself with the FACSAria and Diva software utilized by the Flow Core. It is also recommended that you validate any protocols on the FACSAria before experimentation is done. Please contact Tim if you have any further questions.

Additional information about the billing system in use has been added to the Billing link on the left panel. Please review the new information and speak with Tim if there are any questions or concerns.

The 12-color LSRII in the Flow Lab is now online! The laser configuration is the same as the 11-color LSRII in the HIC with the exception of the Violet laser. Head over to the Analysis page to find information about this difference. Reservations can be made here as well.

The new FACSCanto is on-line and available for use. This is an 8-color insturment running DIVA 6.1. You will need a log-in account. If you do not have one, you will need to apply for one here.

Our new calendar is on-line. Please bookmark http://coreserver.urmc-sh.rochester.edu/cgi-bin/flowcore/flowcore.pl. You will need a log-in to make reservations. You can apply for one here.

We will be bringing on-line a new 12-color LSR-II in early June.

Join our URMC Flow Cytometry Mailing List to keep updated with the latest developements in the Flow Core