Acquisition of a Brightfield Imaging Capable Flow Cytometer to Facilitate Agricultural and Environmental Research

The MSU Flow Cytometry Core Benchtop Analyzer project, will acquire a ThermoFisher Attune CytPix flow cytometer to expand institutional flow cytometry capacity. The award from MSU's Shared Research Infrastructure Program (SRIP) responds to current high utilization of existing instruments: the MFCCF currently operates its flow cytometry resources at near full capacity, limiting researchers’ access and throughput. Acquiring the Attune CytPix will address this bottleneck by providing an additional, modern analyzer that supports enhanced imaging and analytical capabilities for the core and its users.

To maximize utility and biosafety, the new instrument will be placed inside a biosafety cabinet. The Department of Microbiology, Genetics, and Immunology is funding the biosafety cabinet, which will enable the MFCCF to analyze BSL-2 specimens on the Attune CytPix. This change is especially important because it extends the core’s ability to handle specimens that require containment, thereby broadening the types of projects and investigators who can use the facility. The Attune CytPix offers integrated imaging with flow cytometry, enabling combined brightfield-capable imaging and multiparameter cytometric analysis on a benchtop platform. Within the MFCCF, the instrument will support a diverse range of researchers across campus by increasing throughput and accommodating projects that were previously constrained by biosafety limitations or instrument availability.

The program aims to fund investments that will benefit a wide range of researchers and students. Placing the Attune CytPix in a biosafety cabinet, with departmental support for the cabinet itself, reflects a collaborative approach that leverages departmental resources and core facility management to deliver a safe, accessible platform for BSL-2 sample analysis. For the MFCCF, this acquisition both relieves current demand pressures and strategically enhances the core’s technical capabilities, enabling more complex and higher-risk specimen handling while maintaining compliance with biosafety requirements. The expanded capacity is expected to support ongoing and future research initiatives across disciplines, improving access to flow cytometry and imaging tools that are essential for many experimental programs. The Attune CytPix acquisition exemplifies SRIP’s intent: to make targeted infrastructure investments that have outsized impact on research productivity, safety, and interdisciplinary collaboration. PI Matthew Bernard and the MFCCF will integrate the new instrument into core operations, providing training, scheduling and support to facilitate broad uptake by MSU investigators.