This facility is a research supported resource which is part of the School of Medicine Biotechnology Program. Flow cytometry and Confocal microscopy are powerful techniques based on laser light excitation of fluorescent molecules. Flow cytometry is commonly used to study various aspects of cell function, including apoptosis, cell cycle, and immunophenotype analysis. The facility has two bench top flow analyzers: LSR II 4-laser 11-color flow cytometer and FACScan one laser 3-color cytometer (both Becton Dickinson). There is also a five-color cell sorter (BD FACSVantage) to isolate specific cell subsets from a complex mixture of cell types. Confocal microscopy is used primarily for cellular co-localization studies and three-dimensional reconstruction. The facility has a Zeiss 510 Laser-scanning Confocal Microscope which is capable of three-channel fluorescence imaging. Other instrumentation which is now part of the core facility are an iCys Laser Scanning Cytometer (Compucyte), which has similar capabilities as flow cytometry for samples on a slide or multiwell plate, and a PALM Laser Capture Microdissection system (Carl Zeiss), which allows excision and removal of specific target cells from a tissue or cell culture.