How to schedule instrument time.

Sign up for time on the FACScan or FACSCaliber on the instrument sign-up sheet located in the flow facility. Include your name, your PI’s name, phone number and the time period you require for analysis. Alternately, call (606-1925) or e-mail (telfordw@hss.edu) the Core to reserve time. Please allow sufficient time for instrument start-up (about ten minutes) and post-experiment instrument cleaning and data backup (usually about twenty minutes) when calculating your estimated usage time. Once you have finished analyzing, please fill in the usage log with your name, your PI’s name, lab location, phone number, time you used and a brief description of what you have analyzed. This information is very important for accessing the usage of the facility, since this will justify our existence to the great givers of grants who provide necessary facility support! Please sign up only for time you really need; outside users will be billed for any time signed up for, regardless of whether the time was actually used. If you need to cancel a scheduled run, visit, call or e-mail the Core to remove your name from the sign-up sheet.

Experiments on the Vantage generally require greater advance notice, as well as a preliminary meeting with the operator to plan the run. Please give at least one week (preferably two) advance notice for scheduling Vantage experiments. Sterile sorts on the Vantage require that the user provide 5 liters of sterile PBS the day before the sort for use as sheath fluid.

When using the instruments, please follow carefully the posted start-up and shut-down instructions. When you have completed your experiment, please remember to flush the instrument with 10% bleach and distilled water according to the posted directions. Each user should empty the waste tank and refill the sheath after use. Sheath fluid is provided by the Core. These directions must be followed, no matter how small your experiment is. Following these simple maintenance instructions will greatly enhance day-to-day instrument performance and minimize downtime for servicing. Repeated failure to take care of the instrument in this manner will necessitate frequent replacement of the fluidic system, with resultant instrument downtime and increased user costs.

Monday mornings from 10:00 to 12 noon will be reserved by the facility for routine FACScan and FACSCaliber preventative maintenance. Please do not plan to use the instruments during this time.

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