Core Facilities

The Department of Cancer Biology and the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center are home to the FACs Core Facility and the Cellular Therapy Center Core Facility.

A comprehensive list of available core facilities can be found on the Office of Research Services core facilities web page

FACS Core Facility

Phong Le, PhD, Core Facility Director
ple@luc.edu

Bert Ladd, Core Facilities Manager
rladd@luc.edu
CBCC Room 212

Corbin Pomykata, Flow Cytometry Specialist
cpomyketa@luc.edu

The FACS Core Facility occupies a 500 ft laboratory on the second floor of the Cancer Center. The Facility contains a FACSAria, a FACS Canto II, an LSRFortessa and an Amnis ImageStreamX Mark II. The FACSAria IIIu is equipped with 5 lasers – 405, 488, 561, 633, and near UV and is capable of detecting 15 simultaneous fluorochromes; the FACSCanto II bench-top flow cytometer equipped with 3 lasers – 405, 488, and 633 and is 8 color capable; and an LSRFortessa flow cytometer equipped with 4 lasers – 405,488, 561, and 633 and is 15 color capable. The Amnis ImageStreamX Mark II is equipped with 3 lasers – 405, 488, and 633 and is 6 color capable. The Chromium Controller is a chip technology that uses microfluidics to perform single cell partitioning and barcoding in minutes. The Chromium Controller enables integrated analysis of single cells at large scale. The Cytek Aurora is a full spectrum technology which provides the use of a wide array of fluorochromers without instrument reconfiguration This high resolution cytometer deliver high resolution data at the single-cell level and can resolve challenging issues such as high autofluorescence and low level of expresson of biomarkers.  Additional information is available on the FACS Core Facility webpage .

Training classes and one-on-one support are available for investigators, students, and staff to use the FACSCanto II and LSRFortessa for data acquisition. Dedicated computer workstations offering Flowjo, CellQuest, and ModFit LT software packages are available for data analysis. 

The FACS Core Facility also houses a Miltenyi-Biotec AUTOMACS, a fully automated bench-top sorter for positive or negative magnetic cell separation. Users can perform sterile or non-sterile separations based on their experimental needs.

Contact Pat Simms for more information.

Equipment in the lab

AmnisAriaAutomacs

Core Facility Equipment

 Core Facility Equipment

 Automacs 
Facs Lab 10X Chromium Controller Cytek Aurora
Core Facility Equipment FACS CORE EQUIPMENT  FACS Core Equipment 
  FACS Canto II   
  FACS Core Equipment  

Cellular Therapy Center Facility

The Cellular Therapy Center (CTC) is a clean room facility meeting cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Processes) standards that enable cellular based processing to be performed following the highest standards for product development and clinical trials.  The facility occupies 1200 ft on the lower level of the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, and is served by dedicated controlled environmental systems to assure continued maintenance of the strict cGMP standards, and in keeping with FDA guidelines and regulations.  The facility has three primary operational Class 10,000 laboratory suites.  Each suite is fully equipped and use is dedicated to a specific laboratory to avoid potential cross contamination. 

Contact the facility at 708-327-1241 for more information.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

In addition to formal core facilities, the Department of Cancer Biology provides shared facilities and equipment for use by our investigators. Please contact the listed faculty member for information, availability and to set up training. To ensure personnel safety and proper maintenance of these important resources, documentation of formal training will be required prior to use. Cost for all reagents and consumables is the responsibility of the user.

Centrifuges:

  • Beckman Avanti JE centrifuge with JA20, JA10 and swinging bucket rotors (Nick Achille x73119)
  • Beckman Optima XE-90 ultracentrifuge with Type 70.1Ti, VTi65.2 and SW32Ti rotors (Maurizio Bocchetta x73136)
  • Beckman benchtop TL-100 ultracentrifuge (Mitch Denning x73358)

Histology

  • Molecular Devices Arcturus XT laser capture microdissection instrument with LED illumination, epi-fluorescence illumination and autoscan XT (Nancy Zeleznik-Le x73368)
  • Leica CM3050-3 cryostat (Nancy Zeleznik-Le x73368)

Imaging / Microscopy;

  • Invitrogen iBright CL1000 imaging system (Wei Qui x78191)
  • BioRad ChemiDoc fluorescence and chemiluminescence detection system ((Nancy Zeleznik-Le x73368)
  • Li-Cor Odyssey infrared imaging system (Mitch Denning x 73358)
  • BioRad TC20 automated cell counter (Wei Qui x78191)
  • Nikon Diaphot inverted fluorescent microscope with Olympus DP21 camera (Mitch Denning x73358)
  • Olympus BX53 fluorescent microscope with attached Hamamatsu ORCA-Flash4.0 LT camera; Olympus dual-headed AX80 microscope with Olympus DP21 2MP camera (Wei Qui x78191)

In Vivo Studies;

  • Euthaniz EZ-3500 multi-animal anesthesia (Wei Qui x 78191)
  • Visual Sonics Vevo 770 high resolution in vivo ultrasound imaging system (Clodia Osipo x 72372)
  • Vetamc vaporizer / anesthesia unit
  • Perkin Elmer IVIS Spectrum animal image with camera (Steve Kregel x72431)
  • Rad Source RS2000 X-Ray Bio iRad 50 Hz irradiator (Jiwang Zhang x 73343);
  • Drew Scientific Hemavet 950FS system (Nick Achille x73119)

Molecular Biology;

  • Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Nick Achille x73119)
  • Diagenode Bioruptor Pico automated sonicator (Nick Achille x73119)
  • Synergy H1m hybrid multi-mode microplate reader (Valerie Chai x73298)
  • Fisher Nanodrop 1000 Spectrophotometer (Maurizio Bocchetta x73136)
  • Fisher Nanodrop 2000c Spectrophotometer (Nick Achille x 73119)
  • Life Technologies QuantStudio 6 real-time PCR System, 96-well Fast (Nick Achille x 73119)
  • Applied Biosystems QuantStudio system (Nick Achille x 73119)
  • Amaxa Nucleofector (Nick Achille x 73119)
  • Invitrogen – Thermo Fisher Neon electroporation system (Jiwang Zhang x73343)

Other;

  • Dark room with Alpha Tek AX300 Film Developer (Maurizio Bocchetta x73136)
  • Walk-in cold rooms (4 degrees Celsius) for storage and performance of experiments that must be conducting at low temperatures
  • BioSpherix C-Shuttle Hypoxia System
  • Packard Top Count Microplate Scintillation Counter (Nancy Zeleznik-Le x73368)
  • Beckman Scintillation Counter for vials (Mitch Denning x73358)
  • New Brunswick Shaker (Nancy Zeleznik-Le x73368)