Students in Dr. Kristian M. Hargadon’s Biology 323 – Immunology class recently began utilizing the Biology Department’s new flow cytometer in their laboratory projects.  Flow cytometry is a powerful fluorescence-based detection system with numerous applications that include immunophenotyping, cytolysis assays, cell cycle analyses, gene expression studies, cellular proliferation assays, etc. (just to name a few!).  Students enrolled in Immunology this semester are using this cutting-edge technology to study the maturation of dendritic cells in response to several stimuli.  Dendritic cells are key regulators of host immune responses, and their maturation is critical to the effective induction of immunity to foreign pathogens and tumors.  In previous weeks, students have isolated dendritic cells from the spleens of mice and cultured these cells with various maturation stimuli, including Toll-like receptor ligands and CD40L, either alone or in combination.  Just this week, these students utilized flow cytometry to measure the cell surface expression of two important immune stimulatory proteins, CD80 and CD86, that are upregulated on dendritic cells during their maturation.  Using this approach, students were able to analyze the expression of these molecules on tens to hundreds of thousands of cells in less than 1 minute!  The H-SC Biology Department is so excited about training our students to utilize this technology, and we will be incorporating flow cytometry into several of the Department’s laboratory course offerings!

Cory Geiger loading samples into the flow cytometer as Stephen Woodall and John Collie look on with anticipation and excitement to come about the data!

Christian Lehman, Daniel Osarfo-Akoto, and Bryan Talbert collecting and analyzing their samples. Yes, flow cytometry is indeed THAT fun!