DFG Major Research Instrumentation: Multi-Parameter Flow Cytometer

In recent years, increasingly complex questions concerning the phenotypic and functional characterization of different professional and non-professional immune cells have become the focus of research at the University of Lübeck (UzL) and the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) Campus Lübeck. Flow cytometry, whose potential has increased enormously in recent years due to constant new developments, especially in the field of fluorochromes and flow cytometers, is one of the most important analytical methods in immunological research. In order to successfully work on complex problems, cytometers are required which allow multiparameter experiments to be carried out. The Cell Analysis Core Facility (CAnaCore), the technology platform for flow cytometry and cell sorting at UzL, currently operates an analytical flow cytometer with 4 lasers for the detection of 15 color parameters as well as FSC/SSC. In the meantime, multiparameter flow cytometers have been developed, which are able to simultaneously detect more than 30 color parameters and thus define the complex composition and, in addition, the function of immune cells in circulation and tissues. This makes it possible, especially with limited sample quantities, to obtain a detailed picture of immune reactions in inflammatory diseases of different origins and to derive new concepts for the diagnosis and therapy of such diseases. For this reason, a multiparameter flow cytometer is to be purchased for the CAnaCore at the University of Lübeck, which will enable researchers to carry out such state-of-the-art analyses in the many different basic and translational research projects. This concerns, in particular, the current DFG-funded joint research projects within the EXC 2167 "Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation", the CRU 303 “Pemphigoid Diseases - Molecular Pathways and their Therapeutic Potential", the IRTG 1911 "Immunoregulation of Inflammation in Allergy and Infection", the RTG 1743 "Genes, Environment and Inflammation", the projects of the BMBF-funded networks of the German Centers for Lung Research, (DZL), Infection Research (DZIF), Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) and Diabetes research (DZD) as well as in the EU-funded Marie Sklodowska Innovative Training Network “Complement Regulation and Variations in Opportunistic Infections” (CORVOS) and the ERC Synergy Grant “Well-Aging and the Tanycytic Control of Health” (WATCH).