IMBB Researchers have full access to the Flow Cytometry Facility of the University of Crete, School of Medicine. The Facility is equipped with a BD FACS Aria^TM III Cell Sorter capable of analyzing and sorting complex cell populations with up to 18-20 colors, and with a BD FACSCanto™ II Cell Analyzer offering 6 to 10 parameter multicolor flow cytometry analysis. The applications of the BD FACS Aria III and the BD FACSCanto™ II are available to all research groups of FORTH, the University of Crete and the University Hospital of Heraklion in Crete. The facility provides high quality cell analysis and sorting, technical support and advice for experimental design and specific sorting protocols.

A FACSCalibur Beckman-coulter Cell Analyzer is also installed at the Institute of IMBΒ, supporting the FORTH research community.

The instruments BD FACS Aria^TM III and FACSCalibur are operated by IMBB personnel Zaharenia Vlata and Takis Makatounakis.

The BD FACSCanto™ II is operated by each user individually.

Cell-Sorter and Cell Analyzers are flow cytometry tools/applications.

Flow cytometry is a powerful, high-throughput technology that allows rapid analysis of the physical and chemical characteristics of individual cells or particles (ranging in size from approximately 0.2 to 150 μm), as they flow in a stream of fluid. It allows rapid, multiparametric measurement of thousands of cells, using fluorescent antibodies and other fluorescent dyes to measure cell cycle and viability. The above technology uses special instruments called flow cytometers, such as FACS (Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting) and FACS-Sorter.

The FACS function allows the measurement of individual biological particles such as cells, nuclei, chromosomes, etc. An extension of this technology is the sorting of flow cells using the FACS - Sorter, which, in addition to cellular analysis, further isolates cells, bacteria and other particles of a similar size, in living form. The various isolated cells can then be investigated using microscopy, biochemistry and functional experiments. Cell isolation is a fundamental process in modern biological research and clinical diagnosis, allowing the separation of specific cell types from a heterogeneous population (e.g., tissue or blood).