Aurora - Full Spectrum Training

Introduction to Flow Lecture

Before you can sign up for initial training, you will be required to attend the Introduction to Flow lecture. This is a 1.5 hour basic lecture to introduce you to the concepts of flow cytometry. The training is held via Zoom or in person (alternating) every other week.  The days/times of the lecture will be posted on the website as well as announced via email.  

There are a number of documents and resources linked from the Aurora pages that could be beneficial in your learning about this technology and use of the instrument.

Available Times for Training Appointments

The general times available each week will be listed in the PPMS request form.  Please indicate your availbility from the listed optoins and the training team will do their best to match your request, and email you to confirm.

First Training Visit

The first visit is mandatory for any investigator that does not have prior experience with the FACSDiva based instruments.  The visit will be done in front of the instruments located in the Flow Core, room 3-4151. This visit consists of two parts: a review of the fluidics and instrument as a whole, and a brief bead-based experiment run by the instructor. 

1. To sign up for a training visit, please fill out a training request form.
2. The Flow Core prepared training documents can be found via the links below.
   1. Spectroflo software training overview
   2. Aurora instrument overview
3. A basic experiment will be run from start to finish including unmixing using the Flow Cytometry Resource's materials.
4. There is no charge for this training visit.
5. It is critical that the training starts on time. Anyone more than 10 minutes
   late will have to reschedule and will be charged for 1 hour of time on the
   instrument.

Second Training Visit

An investigator with prior FACSDiva software experience can skip the first Aurora training visit and proceed directly to the second visit if desired.  The second visit is done on the Aurora and is run by the user under the guidance of the instructor. The same beads used during the first visit will be run again so that a recreation of previously seen information can be done while a hands-on introduction to the software happens.

1. To sign up for visit 2, please fill out a training request form.
2. Running beads allows the user to begin to learn the software.
3. There is no charge for this training visit.
4. This visit is for one trainee at a time with no exceptions.
5. It is critical that Visit 2 starts on time. Anyone more than 10 minutes
   late will have to reschedule and will be charged for 1 hour of time on the
   instrument.

Calendar Access

After visit 2 the trainee will have calendar access and schedule/run experiments during normal business hours (8am-5pm). Flow core staff will sign-in the investigator to the instruments at this point.

Plate Loader Training

The plate loader training is separate from the base training and can be requested after your initial training visits.

After-Hours Access

The Flow Core is open during normal business hours (8am to 5pm) from Monday through Friday, though specific instrument availability may vary slightly.

To receive after-hours access, the investigator must fill out the afterhours training request via PPMS. A separate training session (free, approximately ½ hour) will be scheduled to review the specifics of after-hours access and instrument troubleshooting.