The Flow CoRE provides users with equipment, service, and expertise in several locations across the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, including:

• Icahn Medical Institute Building, 13th Floor
• Hess Center for Science and Medicine, Fifth Floor
• Mount Sinai Discovery and Innovation Center, Sixth Floor
• Annenberg Building, 14th Floor

As the CoRE operates on a fee-for-service basis, once the mandatory training modules are completed, reservations are made on a first-come-first-serve basis. This approach guarantees equal access to our facilities by all users, and reservations can be made up to four weeks in advance using iLab.

Investigators who have completed additional optional training may independently use all CoRE equipment at any time. Technical assistance is available 9 am to 5 pm, and assisted data acquisition is available from 10 am to 5 pm. Analysis workstations are also accessible at any time.

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.

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.

The Flow Cytometry CoRE offers users access to FlowJo, a powerful cytometry data analysis software. This site-licensed tool provides premium analysis features, report generation, and presentation capabilities, facilitating easy sharing of experiments within the Mount Sinai Health System and the broader research community that is in line with National Institutes of Health Data Sharing policies. FlowJo's visualization tools, including heatmaps and histogram overlays, enable users to display complex cytometry data clearly and informatively.

Our advanced tools, such as tSNE, viSNE, SPADE, and cluster analyses, support automated population discovery in high-dimensional datasets. For data security, all information generated on our instruments is automatically archived in a remote redundant disk array, allowing recovery of original files in case of data loss.

The CoRE also utilizes a unique Zingtree-based interactive panic button questionnaire on our facility instruments. This user-friendly interface enables immediate technical support requests, notifying both local and remote staff who can respond in real-time.