General

• New users should discuss their projects with the FCCF staff to identify the best approach to answering their biological questions. If the work is to be carried out autonomously by the user, a thorough introduction of the instruments will be provided.

• Before you start working in the FCCF, an introduction to the equipment to be used and how waste is disposed  is compulsory.

• If you cannot remember how to operate a system you were already introduced to, please ask the FCCF staff for advice. We will provide a refresher training session.

• The working environment in the FCCF main lab (V104 room) is BSL1 (biosafety level 1).   

• Handling of BSL2 (biosafety level 2) organisms is restricted to the V101 room. If your scientific project requires the processing of BSL2 samples, please get in touch with us and the safety office (safety@embl.de) well in advance.

• We charge an hourly usage fee as a contribution to our maintenance and consumables costs. Click here for information on the internal usage fee.
• If you are the last user of the day, make sure to switch off the system’s  workstation including;  PC, instrument, sheath supplier, water bath and analyzers’ plate readers (HTS)

• If you publish work supported by the FCCF, e.g. by using one or more FCCF instruments or getting support in cell sorting or data analysis, it is obligatory to include this sentence in the acknowledgment:We thank the Flow Cytometry Core Facility (FCCF) at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) for their support.Moreover, if the FCCF staff members contributed significantly to the published work, and it’s in accordance with EMBL IP rule # 63, staff members shall be included in the author lists.

Booking

General rules

• Make sure to open a ppms account to access our services. The ppms reservation system is used across facilities at EMBL. Instructions on how to open an account are summarised here: Creating a ppms account.
• Booking of the instruments before use is obligatory.
• Please avoid last minute cancellations to do not compromise instrument availability for other users.
• Due to high demand, cell sorters can only be cancelled 24 hours in advance of the session. Sessions not cancelled before this time limit are automatically charged. Special situations can be considered upon request.
• You are responsible for the system while you are booked.
• Please get in touch with us for access rights and an introduction to the analysers’ plate readers (HTS).
• Delete your booking if you are not planning to use your slot. If you delete the last booking of the day, please contact the second last user to inform this person that he/she needs to turn off the system. 
• If you are the last user of the day, make sure to switch off the system’s  workstation including;  PC, instrument, sheath supplier, water bath and analyzers’ plate readers (HTS)

Data management

• Due to the big amount of data that is daily processed by our cytometers and sorters and due to potential failures, the facility cannot store data in the computers associated to the instruments. It is the researchers responsibility to keep a copy of his/her experiments for long-term storage.
• The facility have established a FCCF data-transfer server together with EMBL IT service, to temporally storage the data from the cytometers while users transfer their experiments to their own group server. Only users with an EMBL account can log into the drive. For instructions on how to reach the server, please visit our Data Server page in the Services section.
• Once you have finished your sample acquisition, data should be immediately exported from the instrument to the FCS folder and from there moved to the FCCF data-transfer or preferably, directly to your group server. Make sure you have saved an experiment template.
• After you transfered and verified that the data is in your group server please delete the experiment from the FACSDiva or FACSChorus database (browser window) and FCCF data-transfer server. The use of USB or another external hard drive to retrieve data from the analyzers and cell sorters is absolutely forbidden.
• In order to ensure reliable use of the instruments, all data from the software’s database will be deleted the first Monday of every month. Please note that experiment templates are not going to be deleted.
• Data from every sort we perform is also uploaded in the FCCF data server, for you to archive the files on your group server.  Select the “Sorting_service_data” folder and double click in the folder named with the year and instrument name, then select your group’s folder and look for a folder with your name. You will find the files arranged by the experiment date.
• Please note that due to size constraints, data from the FACSDiscover S8 are also going to be deleted from the FCCF data server the first Monday of every month.

Instruments and common spaces

• Please help us to keep the facility clean and organized by disposing your used tubes and plates in the trash bins. Replace the trash bag when it reached max capacity.
• Please treat the equipment with extreme care.
• Check the equipment for any apparent damage or problems and inform the FCCF staff members.
• Please help us to keep the facility clean and organize by disposing your used tubes and plates in the trash bins.  Replace the trash bag when it reached max capacity.
• Do not forget your racks and ice buckets at the facility.    
• Make sure to turn off the centrifuge at the bench after using it.

After you have finished

• Check whether the system is booked later on the same day.
• If you are the last user of the day, make sure to switch off the system’s  workstation including;  PC, instrument, sheath supplier, water bath and analyzers’ plate readers (HTS)