Meet the team
Joana De Teixeira CarrelhaResearch Facility ScientistBhavik PatelInstrument Optimisation and Maintenance
If you're interested in joining the LMS
The facility instrumentation measures the fluorescence emitted by individual cells labelled with fluorescent probes, with specific subpopulations of cells characterised and isolated for further investigation. In addition to sorting cells, we can also sort chromosomes and nuclei.
The facility operates in partnership with Imperial College, with NIHR BRC funding explicitly granted with the function of promoting translational science. We also work closely with the Dementia Research Institute at Imperial. The facility is used by approximately 125 Groups within the LMS, Imperial College and the Dementia Research Institute and therefore supports a wide range of research including immunology, cancer research, developmental biology and neurobiology. We are one of only two facilities in the country engaged in the of sorting fluorescently labelled chromosomes.
Broadly, the facility offers ability for researchers to phenotypically analyse or physically sort populations of cells or nuclei
Tissue and organ functions fundamentally depend on the types of cells that constitute them and how the cells are organised within. Major advances in single cell transcriptomic analyses, enabled by high dimension flow cytometry, have revealed unexpected heterogeneity within cell populations. It is now pertinent and important to understand how these heterogeneous cell populations are developed and how they influence tissue function. Understanding the features of each cell population is crucial for the biomedical sciences of the 21st century as it holds the promise to uncover cellular and molecular mechanisms underpinning health and disease, leading to the next generation of improved preventative and therapeutic interventions. Cell sorting is the only widely applicable technique capable of providing single cell resolution for proteomic, transcriptomic, epigenetic and functional studies.
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