Technology and Infrastructure
Cell screening has become an integral part of internationally competitive cell-based research and a powerful tool for revealing cell function. The integration of automation into cell biology has allowed large scale experiments to be carried out, which would once have been unfeasible. Multiple antibodies and fluorophores can be used in conjunction with computer algorithms to monitor subcellular changes at the single cell level to discover answers to complex biological questions.
The Cell Screening Laboratory consists of several key components including:
- Automated multi-well plate cell seeder and automated cell counter
- Plate washer
- Vaccum centrifuge
- Liquid handling solutions
- Automated screening fluorescence microscopes
Manual fluorescence microscopes
- FV3000 (IX83) point scanning confocal (Olympus)
- FV1000 (IX81) point scanning confocal (Olympus)
- Andor Revolution spinning disk confocal (Olympus/Andor)
- DMI6000B epifluorescent microscope (Leica)
Automated fluorescence microscopes
- Scan^R (IX81) automated wide-field HCS microscope (Olympus)
- Opera Phenix automated confocal HCS microscope (Perkin Elmer)
Multiple image analysis packages allowing rich quantitative data to be extracted from each cell within a population
- Basic image analysis applications in ImageJ (NIH)
- Custom image analysis solutions in CellProfiler (Broad Institute)
- Custom image analysis solutions in Columbus (Perkin Elmer)
- Custom image analysis solutions in (opens in a new window)Harmony(Perkin Elmer)
Data storage facilities
- 32Tb local NAS data storage on Opera Phenix system
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120Tb local NAS data storage for all imaging systems
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240Tb long-term data storage and analysis on Columbus (Perkin Elmer) Dell PowerEdge server