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First of all thanks to those who replied so promptly to my Tmemory question.
I have another question. We would like to invest in a FACS machine for our
P3 facility. The room is a bit cramped already so the smaller the machine,
the better. We would like to be able to put through viable Mycobacterium
tuberculosis but not necessarily sort. I would appreciate advice therefore
on several points:
1. any experience or good references for FACScanning viable bacteria?
2. considerations of aerosol risk (we would have to eliminate ANY), routine
decontamination (since we are using a P3 pathogen) and more general
decontamination given the machine's location to enable safe (and
presumambly regular) access by the engineer?
3. which machine to buy? As I say we would not necessarily require sorting
although to get it at not much extra cost, size or hassle would be good.
4. recommended software? Operation and analysis will be done in the room on
the computer that comes with the machine. We will most likely download the
data for each run/analysis via our local network onto a drive external to
the room to keep the dedicated computer's hard drive freed up and will
certainly be printing on a laser printer outside of the room. We use both
Macs and PCs but probably have a preference for Macs. What are the
considerations for this kind of set up?
Sorry this query is a bit lengthy but it's the best way to get this sort of
advice - from people who use these machines AND hopefully have some
experience of setting it up in a small P3 facility.
You're probably thinking money by this point - well we're putting about 100
thousand sterling forward in a proposal for all this equipment so we hope
that is useful sum.
Many many thanks,
Mark.
Dr. Mark A. Chambers
Department of Medical Microbiology
St. Mary's Hospital Medical School
Norfolk Place
Paddington
London W2 1PG
Tel: 0171 723 1252 ext 5755
Fax: 0171 262 6299
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