Ricerc@Sapienza

The bulk output of a biological response represents the combined behaviors of highly diverse cells ensemble in physiologic and pathologic conditions. Measuring biological phenomena in bulk populations blends and potentially masks the unique contributions of individual cells, particularly when behaviors are highly heterogeneous or driven by rare cell type. The ability to isolate and analyze cells based on the expression of specific markers has increased our understanding of cell biology and produced numerous applications for biomedicine.
With this in mind, we here propose to dissect the diversity of cell subpopulations through an innovative approach of highly-multidimensional cell separation and analysis, based on spectral cell sorting. To this aim, we are requesting the spectral cell sorter Cytek Aurora CS: this is a recently released instrument that combines the full-spectrum based flow cytometry with high-efficiency cell sorting. This will allow the sorting of human and mouse samples and of different cells and particles, including immune cells, cancer and stem cells, platelets, cell lines, and fluorescent beads. The configuration requested is suitable for both basic and advanced panel design and cell sorting. Importantly, it complies with biosafety level II, allowing the safe separation and the analysis of human cells.
This project stems from a consortium of scientists and physicians from 12 departments, 4 faculties and 3 macro-areas working in different biomedical research fields, who propose to exploit this instrumentation for multiple research lines. The main applications of this technological platform will be the analysis of the heterogeneity of complex immune cell populations and discovery of new immune subsets in several immune/endocrine-related disorders, in viral infections, in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, in hematological disorders, and in cancer.