Cell Sorting Facility

The CMMC Central Cell Sorting Facility (CCSF) supports all research groups of the CMMC and the Life Science Campus of the University Hospital/University of Cologne with highly purified (mammalian) cells. The main goal is to enable interested scientists to share state-of-the-art flow cytometry equipment and to support them with scientific expertise.

The CCSF is equipped with a FACSAria III from BD Biosciences. Our instrumentation is further complemented by three high quality analytical cytometers: a FACS Canto I with 2-laser 6-color configuration, a FACS Canto II with 3-laser 8-color configuration, and a FACS Calibur with 2-laser 4-color configuration (all BD Biosciences). Please find more technical specification of the equipment at instruments.

The Facility is running as full service, which comprises planning of the sort procedure, execution and optimization of the sort as well as quality controls and final flow cytometric analyses by the Facility staff.

The laboratory is located in the CMMC building, 2nd floor, room 2.033, (safety status S2 according to German GenTG).

Selected Publications

Bunse M, Pfeilschifter J, Bluhm J, et al. CXCR5 CAR-T cells simultaneously target B cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and tumor-supportive follicular T helper cells. Nat Comm. 2021; 12:240. (FACS analysis and FACS sorting of CAR-T-Cells)

Hombach A, Barden M, Hannappel L, Chmielewski M, Rappl G, et al. IL12 integrated into the CAR exodomain converts CD8+ T cells to poly-functional NK-like cells with superior killing of antigen-loss tumors. Mol Ther. 2021; doi:10.1016/j.ymthe.2021.10.011. (FACS analysis and FACS sorting of CAR-T-Cells)

Oberbeck S, Schrader A, Warner K, Jungherz D, Crispatzu G, von Jan J, Chmielewski M, Ianevski A, Diebner HH, Mayer P, Kondo Ados A, Wahnschaffe L, Braun T, Müller TA, Wagle P, Bouska A, Neumann T, Pützer S, Varghese L, Pflug N, Thelen M, Makalowski J, Riet N, Göx HJM, Rappl G, et al. Non-canonical effector functions of the T-memory-like T-PLL cell are shaped by cooperative TCL1A and TCR signaling. Blood. 2020; 136:2786-2802. (Multi-color FACS analysis of T cells)

Ding X, Willenborg S, Bloch W, et al. Epidermal mammalian target of rapamycin complex 2 controls lipid synthesis and filaggrin processing in epidermal barrier formation. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2020; 145:283-300 e8. (FACS sorting of transfected cells)

Hombach AA, Rappl G, Abken H. Blocking CD30 on T Cells by a dual specific CAR for CD30 and colon cancer antigens improves the CAR T cell response against CD30- Tumors. Mol Ther. 2019; 27:1825-1835. (FACS analysis and FACS sorting of CAR-T-Cells)

Laugsch M, Bartusel M, Rehimi R, et al. Modeling the pathological long-range regulatory effects of human structural variation with patient-specific hiPSCs. Cell Stem Cell. 2019; 24:736-752.e12. (FACS analysis of stem cell markers and FACS analysis of stem cell differentiation)

Lindner A, Marbach F, Tschernitz S, Ortner C, Berneburg M, Felthaus O, Prantl L, Kye MJ, Rappl G, et al. Calcyphosine-like (CAPSL) is regulated in multiple symmetric lipomatosis and is involved in adipogenesis. Sci Rep. 2019; 9:8444. (FACS analysis of adipocytes)

Frank S, Ahuja G, Bartsch D, et al. YYlncT defines a class of divergently transcribed lncRNAs and safeguards the T-mediated mesodermal commitment of human PSCs. Cell Stem Cell. 2019; 24:318-327.e8. (FACS analysis of transfected cells)

Klaschik K, Hauke J, Neidhardt G, Trankle C, Surowy HM, Heilmann-Heimbach S, Rappl G, et al. The GPRC5A frameshift variant c.183del is not associated with increased breast cancer risk in BRCA1 mutation carriers. Int J Cancer. 2018; 10.1002/ijc.32016. (Single cell sorting)

Xu E, Pereira MMA, Karakasilioti I, Theurich S, Al-Maarri M, Rappl G, et al. Temporal and tissue-specific requirements for T-lymphocyte IL-6 signalling in obesity-associated inflammation and insulin resistance. Nat Commun. 2017; 8:14803. (Multi-color FACS analysis)

Saita S, Nolte H, Fiedler KU, et al. PARL mediates smac proteolytic maturation in mitochondria to promote apoptosis. Nat Cell Biol. 2017; 19:318-328. (Single cell sorting)

Theurich S, Tsaousidou E, Hanssen R, et al. IL-6/Stat3-dependent induction of a distinct, obesity-associated NK cell subpopulation deteriorates energy and glucose homeostasis. Cell Metab. 2017; 26:171-184.e6. (FACS sorting of NK cells)