About us - Flow Cytometry & Cell Sorting Facility | College of Medicine

Our Team

Facility Director

Roxana del Rio-Guerra became the Director of the FCSPD facility in November 2019. She joined the facility in July 2012. She obtained her PhD in Immunology at the UNAM-Mexico and did her postdoctoral training with Dr. Cory Teuscher (UVM-Immunobiology). She worked extensively on T cell immunology (susceptibility/resistance to autoimmune diseases), with a focus on T regulatory and effector T cell populations. She has been working using flow cytometry for more than two decades. She has expertise in strategic designing, validating, implementing, and analyzing multicolor flow cytometry experiments for a wide variety of applications, including preclinical and clinical research. She has a strong customer-oriented mindset to understand the flow cytometry needs of diverse investigators. Roxana is a Specialist in Cytometry (by the ASCP-BOC) and has an active participation and leadership roles in diverse regional, national, and international flow cytometry groups such as the International Society for Advancement in Cytometry (ISAC), Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF), and the Northeast Regional Laboratory Staff & Core Directors (NERLSCD), among others.

Contact Roxana del Rio-Guerra, PhD, SCYM at rdelrio@med.uvm.edu or rdelrio@uvm.edu

Harry Hood Bassett Flow Cytometry and Small Particles Detection Facility

The Harry Hood Bassett Flow Cytometry and Small Particles Detection Facility (FCSPD) is a shared resource laboratory at the University of Vermont, Larner College of Medicine (UVM-LCOM). We have decades of experience using flow cytometry technology for both basic and applied research as well as characterization and quantification of small particles (nm).

Do you wonder about water contamination at Lake Champlain? Does your research need to measure particles or cells (from nm to µm)? Do you want to evaluate cell function, DNA cell cycle, cell metabolic state, or epigenetic modifications? Are you interested in the complexity of ocean microorganisms, the immune system, or any tissue? Or perhaps, your team just wants to speed up cloning, assess cell viability, or measure toxicity of a drug in a cell line. The FCSPD facility consists of 4 flow cytometers (including a cell sorter) and a small particle detector analyzer. We provide strategic design, troubleshooting, validating, implementing, and analyzing multicolor flow cytometry experiments for wide variety of applications, including water contamination, food science, animal science, as well as preclinical and clinical research. Using our instruments, we can simultaneously measure 30-35 proteins, RNA and/or DNA per cell basis (including, but not limited to extra and intra cellular proteins, flowRNA detection, proliferation, activation, DNA cell cycle, epigenetic markers, calcium flux, cell sorting on bulk or single cell for transcriptomic analysis, etc.). We assist with manuscript and grant preparation, as well as provide training and educational services to the broad scientific community of Vermont. All our services aim to achieve a high standard of rigor enabling reproducible flow cytometry experiments. We have excellent social, cultural, and communications skills, along with a strong customer-oriented mindset to understand the flow cytometry needs of diverse investigators, and innovative approaches to foster collaborations to develop methods to address future needs of our users.

By providing cutting edge flow cytometry solutions, we are committed to doing second to none research at UVM-LCOM to innovate and accelerate discoveries that will improve the health of Vermonters and their environment. To achieve this, we work in partnership with UVM scientists and other clients. Their achievements are our achievements, we succeed together.

Core values, Vision and Mission Statement

The core values that we live by each day:

We commit to do second to none research at UVM-LCOM

We innovate and challenge ourselves

We succeed together

We respect and care for each other

Vision

Our vision is to bring the most advanced and innovative high-parameter flow cytometry solutions to address unmet environmental and biological needs and accelerate discovery at the University of Vermont. We aim to advance medical knowledge through research for the benefit of our community and our environment.

We offer the most advanced of this technology to all UVM investigators, nearby colleges peers (including the Vermont IDeA/EPSCoR network), and biotech companies in the area.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to provide our customers with state-of-the-art fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and high-parametric analytical flow cytometry services. We work in partnership with scientists to provide cutting edge flow cytometry solutions to address environmental, water, food, animal, preclinical and clinical researcher needs.

Company History

Flow cytometry at the University of Vermont dates to circa 1980; in the basement of the Stafford building was an Ortho CytoronAbsolute Flow Cytometer. At the end of the 80’s the Hood Bassett family gave a generous endorsement to purchase a new flow cytometer and establish the first flow cytometry facility at UVM, the Harry Hood Bassett Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting facility. The facility was in the basement of Given building, space now occupied by the Animal Care Facility. A Beckman Coulter EPICS Elite flow cytometer was purchased and provided flow cytometry services (analysis and cell sorting) to investigators from the Immunobiology program/Medicine Dept. and others. Dr. Ralph Budd was the investigator who oversaw this new laboratory, and Julie Wolfe the instrument operator. In 1994, Colette Charland arrived as the new manager of the facility. Four years later, the Harry Hood Bassett Flow Cytometry facility was moved upstairs to Given C316. The usage of flow cytometry continued to grow to include immunobiology, cardiology, pulmonary, Ob-Gyn, pathology, biochemistry, cancer, and animal sciences. In 2001, through a National Institute of Health (NIH) and UVM-College of Medicine Shared Instrumentation Grants, funds were obtained to purchase two cytometers from BD Biosciences, the BD LSRII analytical flow cytometer, and the BD FACS Aria cell sorter, and the old Elite cytometer was decommissioned. Due to the high demand for the use of flow cytometry technology, Mrs. Charland started to provide training to the investigators on the use of the analyzer LSRII.

In 2012, Mrs. Charland retired, and Dr. Roxana del Rio-Guerra took over the management of the facility, under the direction of Dr. Jonathan Boyson. Drs. Boyson and del Rio-Guerra priorities were to expand instrument capabilities and services allowing UVM to be at the forefront of research. In 2013, through a UVM-Shared Instrumentation Grant the MACSQuant VYB flow cytometer was purchased, adding services such as 561 nm/yellow laser (for excitation of red fluorescent proteins) and high throughput capacity (96 wells plate reader). In 2014 (NIH SIG), the BD Aria cell sorter was upgraded adding the 561 nm/yellow laser (from 9 to 14 fluorescent parameters), better signal resolution, and increasing stability to the fluid system, and the following year changed its location to HSRF 316. In 2019, through NIH-Shared Instrumentation Grants, the facility acquired a full spectrum flow cytometer (Cytek Aurora, up to 54 fluorescent channels) and the nanoparticle tracker analyzer ZetaView Twin (by Particle Metrix). The same year, Dr. Roxana del Rio-Guerra became the Director of the facility. In 2022 the Harry Hood Bassett Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting (FCCS) facility change its name to the Harry Hood Bassett Flow Cytometry and Small Particle Detection (FCSPD) facility to embrace the width of its services and became part of the Center of Biomedical Shared Resources (CBSR), moving to the first floor of the recently opened Firestone Building.

How to Acknowledge FCSPD facility

We respectfully request that users acknowledge the Harry Hood Bassett Flow Cytometry and Small Particles Detection Facility in any publications or presentation where they were used our services to design, conduct or analyze their research. Acknowledgement is an important metric of the value of core facilities, enhancing our future efforts to obtain financial and other support, to continue providing the best service. All contributions that do not meet the criteria of authorship should be recognized as an acknowledgement and should be placed in the Acknowledgement section and in the Methods section when appropriate.

Acknowledgement Criteria:

Basic scientific advice

Fee-for-service help

Technical advice on protocols

Basic analysis

Methods write-up

Acknowledgement Templates:

To acknowledge our facility:

All flow cytometric (small particle detection) data were carried out in the Harry Hood Bassett Flow Cytometry and Small Particles Detection facility (RRID:SCR_022147) at the UVM-LCOM.

FCSPD Facility User Agreement