Facility Use

The Flow Cytometry Resource Facility provides support for faculty and student research at Princeton University, as well as for investigators outside the university at other academic institutes or private companies. In addition to providing access to the flow cytometers and cell sorting services, we provide technical support to assist in experimental design, data analysis and interpretation as well as development of novel flow cytometric based techniques.

The Flow Cytometry Resource Facility is available 24/7 for use of the flow cytometry analyzers and benchtop cell sorters by fully trained and authorized clients. Training, cell sorting (FACS), and/or consultation appointments can be made by contacting the Facility Director or via the iLab(link is external) link.

Additional services are available at our consortium partner location at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of NJ, Immune Monitoring and Flow Cytometry Shared Resource.

Acknowledgments

We appreciate that you have chosen our facility to conduct your study and would like to remind you to please add a statement along these lines to acknowledge the Flow Cytometry Resource Facility in your publications and presentations:

“We thank Christina DeCoste and/or Katherine Rittenbach and the Molecular Biology Flow Cytometry Resource Facility, which is partially supported by the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey NCI-CCSG P30CA072720-5921.”

If your data is collected on the FACSymphony flow cytometer, please also acknowledge the funding source from the S10 Shared Instrumentation Grant:  S10OD028592.

NIH Public Access Policy: Publications that result from services provided by this Shared Resource must be compliant with the NIH Public Access policy by submitting your paper to PubMed Central. More information on PubMed Central's methods submission instructions.

Commonly Used Applications and Fluorochromes

  • Cell phenotyping with fluorescently tagged monoclonal antibodies. Common fluorochromes include: FITC; Alexa 488, BB515, PE, PE-Cy5, PE-Cy7, PE-TxRed, PerCP-Cy5.5, PE-Cy7, APC, APC-Cy7, Al633, Al647, Al700, APC-H7, Al750, APC-780, Pacific Blue, AmCyan, BV421, BV510, BV605, BV650, BV711, V450, V500, eFluor450, Al405, BUV395, BUV496, BUV661, Al350, Al568, Al594, etc.
  • Cell cycle analysis and DNA content determination; proliferation; apoptosis/cell death; and cell counting assays: Propidium iodide (PI); Hoechst 33342; DAPI; Sytox Green; SYBR Green; Syto13; Pyronin Y; Acridine Orange; CFDA-SE; Click-It Edu, CellTrace dyes and others.
  • Detection of one or more fluorescent proteins: EGFP, YFP, Venus, Citrine, CyanFP, DsRed, HcRed, mRFP, TagRFP, mCherry, tdTomato, TagBFP, iRFP variants and many others. The new multi-laser systems make it possible to simultaneously detect - and FACS sort -  four or more fluorescent proteins.
  • Functional and biochemical experiments such as RNA levels in individual cells, calcium flux, glutathione levels, phosphorylation states; measurement of intracellular proteins and transcription factors; bead array assays for multiplexed detection of cytokines and other secreted compounds; gain of function and loss of function studies and much, much more!
  • Please contact the Facility Director to discuss how your research might benefit from flow cytometry and/or FACS.