biosaftey/software

kharkins@iastate.edu
Tue, 21 Sep 93 18:28:17 CDT

I have two questions, for which I hope to get some assistance from the
network. First, we have a scientist who wishes to viably sort COS cells,
which have been transfected with a plasmid, based upon the presence of a
fluorescent ligand. Our facility policy has always followed the CDC NIH
biosafety guideline. The ATCC catalog states that a BL2 (controlled aerosol)
safety level should be followed with both COS 1 and COS 7 cell lines. Since
jet in air sorting produces aerosol, our facility has normally not approved
these projects. Are there instances where COS cells have been sorted
(published/unpublished) and if so, is there a need to be concerned for the
safety of the operator?

My second question is unrelated to the first. We have a Coulter EPICS 750
series instrument and are currently collecting indo1 fluorescence (long and
short) and ratio as listmode signals. We often have nice discernible shifts
in the long & short histogram peaks, and the ratio in turn goes off scale. Is
there an off-line software package (freeware or marketed) which is DOS
compatible which will allow us to ratio the EPICS listmode short and long
signals on a cell-by-cell basis?

Any comments can be sent to me through the network or via the address
below. Thank you in advance for your comments.

Kristi R. Harkins
kharkins@iastate.edu
Iowa State University
1104 Molecular Biology
Ames, IA 50011
(515) 294-2472

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