REGULATIONS FOR THE USE OF THE CELL SORTER S3A – BIO-RAD

Premise

The Bio-Rad S3 Cell Sorter, purchased with University funding (large equipment) and co-financed by the Departments of Biology, Biomedical Sciences, and Molecular Medicine, has been installed in room 61 on the 6th floor north of the Vallisneri Complex (Department of Biology).

Management and Use of the Cell Sorter

The Cell Sorter can be used by all personnel affiliated with the three aforementioned Departments in compliance with the rules indicated below.

The scientific supervisor has been identified as Professor Elena Reddi, while the technical supervisors are Dr. Beniamina Pacchioni and Dr. Caterina Millino, who will handle routine and extraordinary maintenance of the instrument.

The technical supervisors are also responsible for adequately training all users who intend to use the instrument autonomously. Adequate knowledge of the machine is an essential requirement for access, given its complexity and delicate operation. In particular, users must be aware of and carefully follow the standard procedures to ensure the maintenance of the cell sorter's sterility. Failure to comply with this practice can cause contamination, resulting in serious damage for all subsequent users.

For one morning a week, the technical supervisors will be available to provide assistance or analyze samples for users who request it, by appointment.

Access to the Instrument

The instrument can be used exclusively by reservation through the website service.biologia.unipd.it/gestione_dipartimento/.

Reservations must be made no more than 15 days in advance.

Cancellation of reservations must occur at least 24 hours in advance. Users who cancel a reservation without adequate notice must inform the next user on the reservation list.

In case of instrument malfunction, it is mandatory to immediately contact the technical supervisors, who will restore proper functioning as soon as possible and modify, if necessary, the user's reservation for correct expense allocation.

Reservations made on the site are also used for the allocation of management costs (see next paragraph). For this reason, the reservation must be made clearly indicating the name of the laboratory supervisor (and fund holder), the name of the experiment executor, and a telephone contact. It should also be indicated whether it involves data acquisition (which implies costs due to instrument use) or simple data analysis (which will not be charged as an expense).

Cost Management

The Department of Biology, where the instrument is inventoried, covers the payment of expenses related to management and routine and extraordinary maintenance. The recovery of these expenses will be carried out from users of Biology and other Departments on a quarterly basis.

Two types of internal users from the three involved Departments are identified, each with different hourly rates:

1. Perfectly trained users who analyze samples autonomously: 15 euros/hour.

2. Users who request technician assistance or entrust sample analysis to the technician: 25 euros/hour.

It is also planned to offer the cell sorting service to external users at a cost of 40 euros/hour, excluding VAT, always with the presence of a technical operator.

The quarterly expense for each user will be calculated based on the hours of use recorded on the reservation site.

The recovered amounts should cover the expenses incurred during the year, and in case of a positive balance, the excess amount will be set aside in the appropriate expense chapter managed by the Department of Biology and used to cover unpredictable expenses related to particularly costly spare parts.