A Biosafety Concerns and Solutions for Safe Cell Sorting

Most contemporary flow cytometers that perform cell sorting utilize the same original FACS technology perfected by the Herzenbergs and Becton Dickinson in the late 70s. This electrostatic droplet deflection technology can generate large aerosol clouds if the instrument becomes clogged or if there are other instrument failures during the cell sorting experiment. This aerosol may prove hazardous to the cell sorter operator and other bystanders since it contains the material being sorted and may be inhaled. Due to this well-documented potential hazard, NIH safe sorting best practices have been adopted by the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) and these guidelines are gaining adherence by both core facility staff as well as institutional biosafety officials. Best practices for safe cell sorting are different depending on the agent being sorted as well as the instruments lab setting and instrument configuration. While most cell sorting laboratories are adopting ISAC best practices for sorting unscreened primary human material or lentiviral transfected cell lines, sorting of biosafetly level 3 (BSL-3) agents is rarely considered and is currently performed in only a few centers worldwide. Providing the capability for cell sorting of BSL-3infectious agents presents obvious challenges. Careful evaluation of cell sorter features as they apply to this unique cell sorting environment is critical to providing a safe and reliable shared resource. This poster presents a review of the current guidelines for safe cell sorting at different biosafety levels and describes the BSL-3 cell sorting center at NYU Langone Medical Center.