UNC Asheville receives $76K grant for cell biology equipment

Press release:

UNC Asheville Receives $76,527 Grant from NC Biotechnology Center for Cell Biology Equipment

UNC Asheville has been awarded a $76,527 grant from North Carolina Biotechnology Center to purchase a CytoFLEX flow cytometer, a laser-based, biophysical technology employed in cell counting, cell sorting, biomarker detection and protein engineering.

“The CytoFLEX allows us to analyze thousands of human cells per second, and gathers multiple types of data from each cell as an individual reading,” said Ted Meigs, GlaxoSmithKline Professor of Molecular and Chemical Biology at UNC Asheville. “We can use it to measure the levels of DNA and other specific molecules in individual cells, and to study interactions of fluorescence-labeled proteins in living cells.”

Meigs served as principal investigator for the grant, with co-investigators Kinta Serve, assistant professor of biology at Mars Hill University, and Joseph Martinez of F(x) Immune Diagnostics, a biotechnology company that is a client of the Business Incubation program operated by A-B Tech’s Small Business Center at A-B Tech Enka. Researchers and students from all the partnering institutions will have training and access to the flow cytometer.
“We are grateful to the NC Biotechnology Center for funding the purchase of this equipment, which provides a major advance in the types of cell biological projects that can be undertaken by my lab and others in the WNC region,” Meigs said. UNC Asheville matched a portion of the cost of the flow cytometer, and CytoFLEX manufacturer Beckman Coulter offered an educational discount on the flow cytometer, which typically costs upwards of $100,000.

For more information about the cellular and molecular biology program at UNC Asheville, visit biology.unca.edu/.