FACSAria High-Speed Digital Cell Sorter

 

The Facility has two FACSArias:  one two-two laser, seven-color system for general use and one three-laser, nine-color system that was funded via collaboration with the Friedlander Lab and is available for special use (contact the Core staff).  The FACSArias are very capable sorters and have a host of special features that makes them suitable for use in the research environment.  If you would like to find out any additional information, please feel free to contact us.

 

 

The newest of our cell sorters, the FACSAria incorporates many technological advances to increase its capabilities:

  • Cuvetted Flow Cell:  This allows for more efficient interrogation of the sample than in traditional jet-in-air cell sorters such as the Vantages or Cytomation MoFlos.  The cells are analyzed and fluorescence collected while in a quartz flow cell and the droplet stream required for sorting in generated downstream of the flow cell (see below).  This feature alone gives the sorter tremendous sensitivity with reported detection levels as low as 200 molecules PE/cell.

  • Solid State Lasers with Fixed Alignment:  The FACSAria incorporates air-cooled solid state lasers in a fixed alignment configuration.  This significantly reduces the set-up requirements for the sorter and makes it easier to operate.  The solid state lasers (488mn and 405nm) are lower power than the conventional water-cooled lasers, but the cuvetted flow cell design does not need the output higher powers required for jet-in-air sorters such as the DiVa.
  • Improved Optics Layout:  The incorporation of a new optics arrangement that utilize more reflection and less light passing through optical filters has increased sensitivity (see below).  This has contributed to a much greater level of sensitivity of the near-IR reagents.

 

 

Sorting on the FACS Aria:  The FACSAria is capable of high-speed cell sorts (in excess of 60 million cells/hour) of up to four populations simultaneously.  This is still dependant on cell types and may not be applicable to all cell types, please see out Sort Information page for more information.