Flow Cytometry Dean's CoRE | Icahn School of Medicine

Flow cytometry measures high-order multidimensional data with single cell granularity. It acquires these measurements at rates of thousands per second and works with virtually unlimited population sizes, offering outstanding statistical applications. To leverage this data and return a highly purified subpopulation of live functional cells is the power of cell sorting.

Situated within the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, our CoRE provides all members of the Mount Sinai Health System community with the instrumentation, expertise, and education required to incorporate flow cytometry and cell sorting into any research project. To further fuel scientific research, we monitor and introduce new flow cytometry equipment, methods, and data analyses approaches on a regular basis.

Acknowledging the CoRE in Publications

The lifeblood of any academic institution is publication, and likewise, the metric of success of a shared resource facility is acknowledgement. We ask those who use our services to remember to acknowledge the contribution of the Flow Cytometry CoRE in their publications. Authorship, however, should follow the guidelines set forth in the Faculty Handbook.

Explore the Flow Cytometry CoRE

Step 1: Generate an iLab Account

Visit the Mount Sinai iLab sign-in page.
Note: You must have a linked fund to proceed with reservations.

Step 2: Email the Core Contact us at FlowCytometryCoRE@mssm.edu and provide the following details:

Your lab location (e.g., Icahn, Hess, etc.).
Your availability over the next few business days.

Step 3: Consultation We will schedule a 30-minute session to cover:

Protocol discussion and experimental design.
Instrument selection (e.g., conventional vs. spectral).
An introduction to the Flow CoRE iLab management system.

Step 4: Training Training requirements are based on your experience level:

Experienced Users: Maintenance and instrument-specific refresh training (includes startup, shutdown, cleaning and data backup).
New Users: Complete comprehensive training on the selected instrument.

The Flow Cytometry CoRE is equipped with eight flow cytometers and nine fluorescence activated cell sorting machines in several locations across the Icahn School campus. All equipment is maintained daily by CoRE staff.

Analyzers

Sorters

Icahn Medical Institute, 13th Floor

· BD FACSCantoII (2013, three lasers, eight detectors)

· Thermo Attune (2018, four lasers, 14 detectors)

· Cytek Aurora (2019, five lasers, 64 detectors)

· Amnis ImageStream (2010, six lasers, 12 detectors)

· BD FACSymphony A5 (2023, five lasers, 50 detectors)

Icahn Medical Institute, 13th Floor

· BD FACSymphony S6 (five lasers, 23 detectors)

· BD FACSAria IIu BSL2 (four lasers, 13 detectors)

· Cytek AuroraCS (five lasers, 60 detectors)

· Miltenyi Tyto (three lasers, eight detectors)

· BD FACSDiscover S8 (five lasers, 78 detectors)

Mount Sinai Discovery and Innovation Center, Sixth Floor

· BD LSRFortessa X-20 (2013, five lasers, 18 detectors)

· Cytek Aurora (2023, five lasers, 64 detectors)

Hess Center for Science and Medicine, Fifth Floor

· CytoFLEX SRT (four lasers, 15 detectors)

· BD FACSymphony S6 (five lasers, 23 detectors)

Annenberg Building, 14th Floor

· Cytek Aurora (2023, five lasers, 64 detectors)

Mount Sinai Discovery and Innovation Center, Sixth Floor

Our CoRE offers both mandatory and optional online training modules to address the needs of investigators. Mandatory modules provide essential knowledge to utilize the facilities effectively and must be completed before reservations can be made. These include:

Introduction and policies
Sample preparation guidelines
Project risk assessment for BSL2 compliance
Laser safety
Bloodborne pathogen safety

Once completed, users are granted permission in the iLab system to reserve cytometers.

In addition to the required compliance training modules, the Flow Cytometry CoRE also offers optional training in self-operation of the cytometers, including modules on cytometer software and basic analyzer operations. Once these are completed, users are granted permission in iLab to make unassisted reservations on the analyzer cytometers that use the DiVa software. For those interested in advanced topics in FACS cell sorting, or who plan to operate the instruments on weekends, an additional advanced sorter module is available.

The CoRE also provides pre-arranged consultation in any aspect of single cell analysis and cytometric technology. To supplement these consultation capabilities, the Flow Cytometry CoRE arranges a regular seminar series. This series is comprised of Flow Cytometry CoRE staff, who provide formal discussions of cytometric technologies and techniques, interspersed with external speakers who present cutting-edge concepts.

Users are responsible for the immediate collection and backup of their data following acquisition.

The Flow Cytometry CoRE does not provide long-term data storage or archival services. Data on acquisition computers will be deleted on a weekly basis to ensure smooth instrument operation.

Mount Sinai IT provides multiple secure data storage options (e.g., network drives, OneDrive, Teams, Google Drive):

For guidance on selecting the appropriate solution, please contact Sinai IT.