FAQ

We are located at the UW Medicine South Lake Union Campus in the 750 Rebublican St (E-building) on the 3rd floor, room E386. Please refer to this map for details of how to get to the facility and note that you cannot transport samples through the west hallway (office area).  All samples must travel through the equipment corridor.

For all members of the SLU campus, your proxy key card will grant you access to the facility during normal business hours. If you are a main-campus user who needs a key card or any user who needs after-hours access, email the CAF to request it.

Occasional users of the facility, both UW and external users, will need to check in at the E building reception desk and obtain a temporary access card to be returned at the end of the day. These card only remain active until 5:30pm.

Account Setup

Fill out the New User Training Form so staff can create your account. Login to your Infinity Calendar account, using the SSO button (UW users) or your email (external users). Request access to your desired instruments.

All users need to provide a current Budget # or PO# in order to set up an account. It is the users responsibility to enter that number in the New User Form and to ensure that if the Budget # expires they provide a replacement #.

Training

Training on the cytometers is done by one on one instruction with the facility staff. It is most successful when the user has samples that they would like to analyze to customize the training to the individual. Users that are new to this facility but have previous cytometry experience still need to go through a brief orientation to become familiar with the Cell Analysis Facility operational practices. 

To set up training, use the on-line calendar to book the instrument that you would like to use. Select "Training" as the session type. It's preferable for training to be scheduled before 3pm. If you are unsure of what instrument you need, contact the facility or visit the Instruments page for information about each of the cytometers capabilities. All users will need to fill out a training and orientation form with the facility staff.

Training for sorting requires that you first have approval to sort. Please refer to Sorting prior to scheduling a sort.

We aim to train all user so that they are able to run the cytometer independently but are always available to help if needed.

After-Hours Usage

Users who wish to gain after-hours access need to complete additional training. After hours access also requires the user to have a SLU prox card. This is issued through the SLU building management, the facility cannot grant access without this card. Please plan ahead! Obtaining access can take several days and occasionally the building management system does not get the card activated on the first try. To verify that a card is active for the facility the user must attempt to open the main facility door after 5:30PM or weekends.

Steps to getting after-hours access:

1. Contact facility staff and schedule a reservation during business hours. You will need to book this time on the instrument calendar for the instrument you are planning to use. Select "Training" as the session type.

2. Be sure to have a SLU access card! You can begin the process of obtaining a card by emailing the staff with your UW NetID.

3. After training, CAF Staff can submit the form requesting after-hours access for your card. If you need to use the facility before receiving a card, arrive before 5:00pm to gain access to the facility. There will be no in - out ability without a card.

Gaining after hours sorting access requires demonstrating proficiency during several sorts with staff supervision.

1. Bring your own FACS tubes. In the event of a faulty/cracked tube, each station does have a few extras that you can use in that instance. But the facility does not provide tubes for running entire experiments.

2. Clean up after yourself. Throw away tubes, plates, and gloves in the red biohazard bin. Put pipette tips and other sharps in the sharps pouch. Wipe up any spills.

3. If running earlier in the day or if there is a user signed up after you, follow the posted "User After You" cleaning instructions.

4. If running past 5 pm and you're the last user on the instrument for the day, follow the "Last User of the Day" cleaning and shutdown instructions. Double check that the instrument is turned off before leaving, it can be damaged if left on overnight.

There are several ways to access your flow data.

The computer lab inside the facility has 2 iMAC's and 2 PCs that are free to use to analyze data. Each workstation has the latest version of FlowJo and the PCs also have SpectroFlo for the Aurora. There is one PC in the lab with IDEAS imaging software.

To access data collected on any of the cytometers while in the computer room, there is a folder on the desktop called "Access Cytometer Data" that contains connections to the cytometers. If you double click, a share drive will mount on the desktop of the workstation and you can copy the data to the "temporary data storage" folder to analyze in the lab. These shared computers are for temporary storage of data while using FlowJo or other software. It is the responsibility of the user to backup any analyzed files, reports, PDF's etc. to their own storage device.

To access your current data (March 2020 on) from all instruments you can login to Google Drive with your UW email address and connect via the UWNetID login page. Once logged in go to Google Drive and click on the "Shared with me" menu. You will have a folder there from Cell Analysis Facility. You can download the data to your local computer to analyze from there.

Please contact the facility is you are having difficulties accessing your data.

Recorded Training Session