Flow Cytometry Laboratory

Covid-19 Changes to Flow Lab Operations:

Based on the new Campus Directives regarding response to COVID-19, the Flow Lab will operate as follows starting Monday, March 30th until further notice:

• One staff member at a time, one week at a time, only if they feel it is safe to come to work.
• Biotech remains closed per their building lockdown.
• The remainder of the Flow Lab staff is telecommuting.
• All staff-assisted appointments are cancelled (see Sorting Policy criteria below).
• If you must run, the following conditions must be met:

Campus Directives issued by Steve Ackerman and Robert Golden and SMPH Leadership:

“All on-site research activities must be approved by a dean or director, who are directed to only approve essential research, based on their judgement. Examples of essential research includes research that has the potential to address the COVID-19 crisis, human-subjects research that would endanger research participant lives if stopped, or projects where termination of the research would lead to loss of long-running experimental data, critical time-series or time-sensitive data, loss of equipment, or to the loss of life of critical research-related organisms. There, of course, may be other examples. Please recognize, however, that campus staffing has been reduced sharply due to COVID-19. Most support personnel have been directed to telecommute, from hazardous material staff to biosafety. Public health and campus guidance also require social distancing to minimize face-to-face interactions. Additionally, some personal protective equipment is in critical shortage and must be made available for patients, health care workers, those caring for research animals, and the types of research efforts described above. In short, the on-campus research enterprise must be curtailed.”

Advisory regarding graduate students: Please note that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD A GRADUATE STUDENT BE FORCED OR PRESSURED TO WORK ON CAMPUS, including in labs where permission has been granted for the continuation of limited research activity.

Each PI should identify those activities for which they would like approval for continuation. Their brief description and justification should be sent to their chair, and if the chair approves, PIs should request authorization of vital research activities via the form at https://go.wisc.edu/research-authorization , for SMPH researchers.

For researchers outside of SMPH, follow your school and/or departmental specific instructions.

• This approval must be forwarded to uwflow@uwcarbone.wisc.edu by the PI before we approve your appointment. This experiment must fall under the approved research category.  It is the research lab’s responsibility to ensure that ONLY research that has been approved by the Dean is being conducted during this time.
• All appointments will be queued for staff approval and must be booked and/or cancelled 24 hours in advance.  Staff working from home will be available for startup and QC remotely.
• Consults and education will be handled via web.

Sorting Policy:

• All sorts will be conducted at our WIMR facility.
• Customers must meet all approval requirements listed above.
• Gloves are required at all times.
• Personal interaction will be limited:
  • When sort samples will be dropped off, customers and sort operator must remain 6 ft from one another at all times.
  • Customer must leave Flow Lab once sort setup is discussed.
  • Customer will be called to pick up samples when sort is finished.
  • Samples will be left on the counter in the entryway to the Flow Lab for pickup.

We are asking that customers with scheduled sorts wait to enter the Flow Lab until contacted by the Flow Lab staff to ensure that the instrument and operator are ready to receive samples.

We are also asking that customers using the analysis cytometers refrain from requesting assistance of the sort operator and instead contact the members of the Flow Lab working from home via uwflow@uwcarbone.wisc.edu

The above requests are to allow us to provide the best possible services to those of you with approved essential research while adhering to social distancing guidelines.  We thank you very much for your understanding and are looking forward to being able to work closely with all of you again in the, hopefully, near future.

Please check this page for updates as the situation develops.

Thank you for your patience during this challenging time,

The Flow Lab Staff

https://covid19.wisc.edu

The mission of the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center Flow Lab is to maintain a cutting-edge facility that provides researchers the technical and educational support for fluorescence-based single cell analysis and isolation to further the characterization and understanding of cellular function, biomarkers, pathology and treatment in basic, translational, and clinical research projects.

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