Flow Cytometry

Facility Manager: Jennifer Cassels

Providing cellular analysis, cell sorting, training and expertise in all aspects of spectral and conventional flow cytometry.

The Cancer Sciences Flow Cytometry Facility is a joint facility between the CRUK-Scotland Institute and the School of Cancer Sciences at the University of Glasgow.

The facility provides expertise in all aspects of flow cytometry including high parameter cellular analysis which includes immunophenotyping, stem cell analysis, rare population detection and functional assays. We perform cell sorting for researchers so that they can isolate cell populations for further downstream analysis. We also offer expertise in experimental design, optimisation and troubleshooting and provide equipment training for all users.

The facility comprises of 8 cytometers and a highly dedicated team of specialists. Researchers can use the teams’ years of experience and specialist knowledge to provide bespoke application support and advice to utilise the technology to its fullest potential whilst generating high quality data.

Equipment

The facility has 8 cytometers: two cell sorters, four conventional analysers and two spectral analysers. Open each one for its specification.

BD FACSAria III cell sorter

The BD FACSAria III is a high-speed cell sorter which has four lasers: Violet (405nm), Blue (488nm), Yellow/Green (561nm) and Red (640nm) and can detect 16 fluorescent parameters plus forward scatter and side scatter, allowing for high purity, multicolour sorts.

The Aria can sort a range of particle sizes into a maximum of four separate populations, into FACS tubes, Eppendorf tubes, cell culture plates or 15ml tubes.

BD FACSAria Fusion cell sorter

The BD FACSAria Fusion is a cell sorter which is located within a Class II biosafety cabinet, allowing for sorting of containment level 2 samples.

The Fusion has three lasers: Violet (405nm), Blue (488nm) and Red (640nm) and can detect 11 fluorescent parameters plus forward and side scatter.

The Fusion can sort a range of particle sizes into a maximum of four separate populations, into FACS tubes, Eppendorf tubes, cell culture plates or 15ml tubes.

BD LSRFortessa

The Fortessa is an analytical bench top flow cytometer and has five lasers: UV (355nm), Violet (405nm), Blue (488nm), Yellow/Green (561nm) and Red (640nm) which allow up to 18 fluorescent parameters to be simultaneously measured as well as forward scatter and side scatter.

BD LSRFortessa X-20

The Fortessa X-20 is an analytical bench top flow cytometer and has five lasers: UV (355nm), Violet (405nm), Blue (488nm), Yellow/Green (561nm) and Red (640nm) which allow up to 18 fluorescent parameters to be simultaneously measured as well as forward scatter and side scatter. It also comes equipped with the HTS plate loader.

Thermo Fisher Attune NxT

The Attune NxT is an analytical bench top flow cytometer which has four lasers: Violet (405nm), Blue (488nm), Yellow/Green (561nm) and Red (638nm). It can measure 14 fluorescent parameters simultaneously as well as forward scatter and side scatter.

The Attune NxT includes an autosampler capable of processing 96- and 384-well plates. Utilising innovative acoustic technology, this instrument experiences less clogging and can achieve a sample rate of up to 1ml per minute.

Sony ID7000 spectral cell analyser

The ID7000 is a spectral cell analyser which has five lasers: UV (355nm), Violet (405nm), Blue (488nm), Yellow/Green (561nm) and Red (637nm) and 147 detectors. This instrument is different to our other, conventional cytometers as it doesn’t use physical filter sets but rather collects all the emitted light and unmixes the spectral signatures of individual fluorochromes. Whilst this is different to conventional cytometry, the software is intuitive for experiment setup, acquisition, spectral unmixing and autofluorescence extraction.

The ID7000 has an autosampler which allows walk-away analysis once settings have been optimised. Samples can be in 96-well plates, 384-well plates or 5ml tubes (FACS tubes).

The analysis software is free to all users of the instrument but requires a PC with 16GB of RAM. This software is not compatible with Apple computers.

As we dive deeper into our cells in more detail, the number of parameters increases, and with proper advice and experimental design, panels of over 40 fluorochromes are now possible.

BD FACSCanto II

Located at the Paul O’Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre.

The Canto has three lasers: Violet (405nm), Blue (488nm) and Red (633nm) and can detect 8 fluorescent parameters plus forward scatter and side scatter.

The Paul O’Gorman is a containment level 2 laboratory, meaning that unfixed CL2 samples can be analysed on the Canto.

BD FACSDiscover A8 cell analyser

Located at the Paul O’Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre.

The BD FACSDiscover™ A8 is a cutting-edge cell analyser that integrates full-spectrum spectral flow cytometry with real-time cell imaging. It pairs spectral flow data with high-resolution visual morphology, enabling researchers to dive deeper than ever and ask questions that were previously unanswerable.

It has five lasers: UV (355nm), Violet (405nm), Blue (488nm), Yellow/Green (561nm) and Red (637nm), and 78 fluorescence detectors alongside 8 imaging/scatter detectors, and has a fully integrated autoloader.

BD CellView™ Image Technology: this real-time imaging technology adds a spatial dimension to flow cytometry analysis with image parameters like Diffusivity, Max Intensity, Radial Moment and 12 other automatically generated parameters, along with scatter and fluorescent images.

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Lab Members

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Recent Publications

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Recent Publications

2026

Pardo, L., Moore, M., Deshmukh, R., Powley, I., Waldron, J.A., Kruspig, B., McGarry, L., Dolma, L., Campos, A.V., Wood, C., Leslie, H., Hughes, M., Jeldes, E., Munro, J., Mitchell, L., Officer-Jones, L., Baird, R., Coquelet, H., Jamieson, N.B., Sumpton, D., Strathdee, D., le Quesne, J., Bushell, M., Murphy, D.J., Norman, J.C., 2026. Increased mRNA translation delays tumour initiation and exposes a therapeutic vulnerability in lung cancer. Mol Cancer.

Williams, H.L., Poulain, N., Powley, I., Martinelli, S., Bielik, R., Leslie, H., Nixon, C., Wilson, C.R., Sereno, M., He, Z., Officer-Jones, L., Ballantyne, F., Pennie, R., Wood, C.S., Lewis, D.Y., Jamieson, N.B., Le Quesne, J., 2026. Spatial Molecular Plasticity Underpins Lethal Morphologies in Lung Adenocarcinoma. Mod Pathol 100960.

2025

Baird, R.L., Mason, D., Rakovic, K., Ballantyne, F., Powley, I.R., Georgakopoulou, A., Hillary, L., Bird, T.G., Officer-Jones, L., Le Quesne, J., 2025. PixlMap: A generalisable pixel classifier for cellular phenotyping in multiplex immunofluorescence images. PLoS One 20(12), e0317865.

Kanellos, G., Giacomelli, C., Raven, A., Vlahov, N., Jin, H., Herviou, P., Malla, S.B., Nasreddin, N., Centeno, P.P., Alexandrou, C., Gilroy, K., Baird, R.L., Pennel, K., Munro, J., Waldron, J.A., Hall, H., Officer-Jones, L., Bryson, S., Strathdee, D., Lilla, S., Zanivan, S., Morrison, V., Nixon, C., Ridgway, R.A., Miller, C., Knight, J.R.P., Campbell, A.D., Dunne, P.D., Le Quesne, J., Edwards, J., Park, P.J., Bushell, M., Sansom, O.J., 2025. Nucleophosmin supports WNT-driven hyperproliferation and tumor initiation. Nat Genet 58, 100–115.

Müller, M., May, S., Hall, H., Kendall, T.J., McGarry, L., Blukacz, L., Nuciforo, S., Georgakopoulou, A., Jamieson, T., Phinichkusolchit, N., Dhayade, S., Suzuki, T., Huguet-Pradell, J., Powley, I.R., Officer-Jones, L., Pennie, R.L., Esteban-Fabró, R., Gris-Oliver, A., Pinyol, R., Skalka, G.L., Leslie, J., Hoare, M., Sprangers, J., Malviya, G., Mackintosh, A., Johnson, E., McCain, M., Halpin, J., Kiourtis, C., Nixon, C., Clark, G., Clark, W., Shaw, R., Hedley, A., Drake, T.M., Tan, E.H., Neilson, M., Murphy, D.J., Lewis, D.Y., Reeves, H.L., Le Quesne, J., Mann, D.A., Carlin, L.M., Blyth, K., Llovet, J.M., Heim, M.H., Sansom, O.J., Miller, C.J., Bird, T.G., 2025. Human-correlated genetic models identify precision therapy for liver cancer. Nature.

Seyedshahi, F., Rakovic, K., Poulain, N., Claudio Quiros, A., Powley, I.R., Richards, C., Uraiby, H., Klebe, S., Moore, D.A., Nakas, A., Wilson, C.R., Sereno, M., Officer-Jones, L., Ficken, C., Teodosio, A., Ballantyne, F., Murphy, D., Yuan, K., Le Quesne, J., 2025. A histomorphological atlas of resected mesothelioma discovered by self-supervised learning from 3446 whole-slide images. Nat Commun 16(1), 8891.

White, M., Mills, M.L., Millett, L.M., Gilroy, K., Hong, Y., Zeiger, L.B., Simpson, R.J., Corry, S.M., Ligeza, A., Lannagan, T.R.M., Susanti, S., Ridgway, R.A., Yazgili, A.S., Grzesiak, L., Amirkhah, R., Ford, C.A., Vlahov, N., Tovell, H., Officer-Jones, L., Ficken, C., Pennie, R., Najumudeen, A.K., Raven, A., Nasreddin, N., Chauhan, E., Papanastasiou, A.S., Nixon, C., Morrison, V., Jackstadt, R., Graham, J.S., Miller, C.J., Ross, S.J., Barry, S.T., Pavet, V., Wilson, R.H., Le Quesne, J., Dunne, P.D., Tejpar, S., Leedham, S., Campbell, A.D., Sansom, O.J., 2025. MAPK-driven epithelial cell plasticity drives colorectal cancer therapeutic resistance. Nature.

2024

Williams, H.L., Poulain, N., Powley, I., Martinelli, S., Bielik, R., Leslie, H., Nixon, C., Wilson, C.R., Sereno, M., He, Z., Officer-Jones, L., Ballantyne, F., Pennie, R., Wood, C.S., Lewis, D.Y., Jamieson, N.B., Le Quesne, J., 2024. Spatial resolution of transcriptomic plasticity states underpinning lethal morphologies in lung adenocarcinoma. bioRxiv.

Xavier, V., Martinelli, S., Corbyn, R., Pennie, R., Rakovic, K., Powley, I.R., Officer-Jones, L., Ruscica, V., Galloway, A., Carlin, L.M., Cowling, V.H., Le Quesne, J., Martinou, J.C., MacVicar, T., 2024. Mitochondrial double-stranded RNA homeostasis depends on cell-cycle progression. Life Sci Alliance 7.