Who We Are
The National Laboratory for HIV Immunology (NLHI) is one of three national laboratories within the National HIV/AIDS Laboratories. The mission of NLHI is to serve as a national resource facility for HIV Immunology. By dissemination of innovative, cutting-edge technical information, the laboratory aims to meet current and future needs of Canadian clinicians facing the fight against HIV and AIDS. With a broad knowledge base and unparalleled facilities, our lab continually evaluates, assesses, adapts and develops new leading-edge technologies that may be suitable for monitoring HIV/AIDS disease progression. NLHI is responsible for developing standard techniques and guidelines for immunological monitoring of HIV/AIDS patients and provides a National Proficiency Program to monitor markers of disease progression prior to and during therapy.
Scientific and Financial Accountability
In any large organization, there is a tendency to make unilateral decisions based on departmentally defined mandates. To prevent these priorities from being in conflict with what is in the public's best interest, NLHI's service delivery operation and performance are overseen by three external review processes, each addressing a different aspect of NLHI's work.
To provide leadership in a complex and often changing biotechnology-based discipline, it is important to maintain, and provide proof of, technical competence. As such, NLHI is regularly evaluated by several external Quality Assessment Programs (QAP).
Facilities
As a national reference laboratory, NLHI is equipped with a wide range of flow cytometric instrumentation and support equipment.
Beckman Coulter EPICS XL/MCL
Equipped with a 488 nm Argon laser, it has four-colour immunofluorescence
capability and a Multi Carousel Loader (MCL), allowing automated measurement
of multiple samples.
BD FACSCalibur
The FACSCalibur is a modular instrument equipped with a 488 nm Argon laser
and a 635 nm red diode laser. A fourth PMT allows four-colour applications
and the FACS Loader provides automated presentation of multiple prepared
samples. The additional Sorting option allows sorting of specific cell
subsets.
BD FACScan
This instrument is equipped with a single 488 nm Argon laser and is used
for routine 3-colour applications.
BD FACSCount
A small, fully-automated benchtop instrument, the FACSCount uses a specifically
designed BD reagent kit to provide absolute counts of CD4, CD8, and CD3
T lymphocytes in unlysed whole blood.
Beckman Coulter EPICS Elite
This versatile flow cytometer, equipped with sense-in-quartz flow cell
and enhanced optics, is capable of up to 8-parameter analysis and sorting.
The Autoclone option provides for single cell sorting into microwell plates.
Currently, the instrument is equipped with an air-cooled 488 nm Argon
ion laser and two He-Ne lasers emitting at 543 nm and 633 nm, respectively.
Luminex 100 (Luminex Corporation)
The Luminex 100 system is a fully digital processing flow cytometer designed
for microbead based multiplex bio-assays. It consists of a compact flow
analyzer, incorporating a 635 nm diode laser and a 532 nm frequency doubled
Nd-YAG laser, as well as avalanche photodiodes and a high sensitivity
photomultiplier tube for signal detection. It is controlled by a PC with
proprietary acquisition and analysis software. The computer also controls
an XY plate handler, which is used for processing samples in 96-well microtiter
plates.
Flowmetrix (Luminex Corporation)
The instrument is well suited for microbead based multiplex bio-assays
in a single tube format. It uses a flow cytometer (FACScan or FACSCalibur,
Becton Dickinson) and a PC with proprietary digital signal processor board
and acquisition software.
Super Mot (Howard M. Shapiro, M.D., P.C.)
This benchtop, research grade flow cytometer is the newest of our instruments.
It incorporates a 20 mW frequency doubled Nd-YAG laser emitting at 532
nm and a 635 nm diode laser . This instrument is used for high sensitivity
antibody quantitation.
Beckman Coulter MaxM Hematology Analyzer
A quantitative, automated, differential cell counter that generates WBC
count and differential, RBC count, Hgb concentration and platelet counts
from EDTA whole blood.
Beckman Coulter Multi-Q-Prep, TQ-Prep and Prep Plus
The lab has several of these instruments for rapid, automated RBC lysis
and preparation of whole blood leucocyte suspensions for quantitative
immunofluorescence. Designed for use with the Coulter ImmunoPrep reagent
kit, they have 32-tube capacity removable carousels for multiple sample
preparation.
Computing Environment: Local Area Network (LAN)
Our laboratory uses a diverse set of computers (PCs and Macs) for control
of flow cytometers and data acquisition. There is also a number of workstations
which are used for data analysis and reporting. All instrument control
computers and user workstations are connected by Windows NT network. Experimental
data is stored on a file server, whose disks are partitioned to accommodate
DOS and Macintosh files. At regular intervals data is backed up to high
capacity tapes.
Contact us:
National Laboratory for HIV Immunology
Bureau of HIV/AIDS, STD and TB
Tunney's Pasture PL# 0603B1
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0L2
Fax: (613) 946-3237