Accuri Flow Cytometer Creativity Award Program

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We are excited to see flow cytometry used more broadly in the life sciences. Towards that goal we want to 1) support new and innovative research, and 2) help investigators expand the use of flow cytometers. Download our Creativity Award Application and tell us about innovative protocols or new research you would perform if you had access to the full-featured analytical Accuri C6 Flow Cytometer System in your lab.

We receive many highly-qualified submissions and can only award two C6 Flow Cytometers a year in countries where we actively sell our products. Proposals not selected automatically stay in the pool of potential recipients. Awards are announced once a year in April. Creativity Award winners are not eligible for additional awards for a period of five years after their abstract was selected.

Download Creativity Award Application

2009 Winning Abstracts

A Flow-Cytometric Method for Continuous Measurement of Intracellular Ca²⁺ Concentration

Alice Vines, Gethin McBean, and Alfonso Blanco Fernández from University College Dublin Ireland

Alterations in intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration are amongst the most rapid responses to a variety of stimuli in mammalian cells. In the nervous system in particular, responses occur within nanoseconds. A major challenge in intracellular Ca²⁺ analysis is to achieve measurements within this very fast time frame. To date, the dynamic intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration has been monitored by confocal microscope, plate based assays and spectrofluorometry, although there are issues with the number of cells analysed or gaps in recording due to the addition of compounds, with significant loss of detail of a rapid Ca²⁺ response.

The new generation of flow cytometers resolves this problem by allowing the addition of test compounds with continuous monitoring of thousands of cells, providing a method for highly accurate dynamic Ca²⁺ measurements.

This system was tested with commonly used Ca²⁺ modulating agents in C6 glioma cells. Thapsigargin (TG), a blocker of Ca²⁺ uptake into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), causes a significant increase in the intracellular calcium concentration via ER emptying followed by Ca²⁺ entry via store operated Ca²⁺ channels (SOCC). This well established pathway can be partially inhibited by 2-APB, a blocker of SOCC. Both the increase with TG alone and the partial increase when co-incubated with 2-APB were observed with continuous recording along with calibration curves using a flow cytometer.

Applying Quantum Dot (Qdot) Technology in Flow Cytometry

Dr. Karen M. Orcutt , Assistant Professor and Dr. Kjell Gundersen, Assistant Research Professor, Department of Marine Science, University of Southern Mississippi

The proposed application will combine Qdot technology and microbial ecology to better understand the nitrogen cycle in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Recently, we have tested the use of Qdot antibody conjugates to detect the growth physiology of phytoplankton cells using conventional flow cytometry. This new application has shown great potential in the field of molecular cell biology in aquatic systems. Our proposed research will expand on conventional microscopy and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based molecular techniques and it will provide a novel and direct method to detect and quantify nitrogen fixing cells in the marine environment. This new application of the Accuri C6 cytometer has the potential to be transformative in the way we detect microbial cells in ocean systems.