Policies

• No food or drink is allowed in the lab portion of the core.
• No open-toed shoes or shorts are allowed.
• Untrained users must be supervised by a trained user or core staff at all times.
• Email flow@creighton.edu if your sample contains a biologically infectious agent or a hazardous chemical.
• Radio-labeled samples may not be used in the facility at this time.
• In the event of an emergency, place the instrument in stand-by and leave the premises. If this is not followed, you will be placed on probation or denied access by the core director.
• Any unlabeled tubes left in the core will be disposed of immediately.

• Scheduling is done via our online reservation software.
• Assisted appointments have a minimum reservation time of 1 hour, and billed in 15 minute increments.
• Users must cancel their appointment at least 24 hours in advanced. If not, you will be charged half of your reserved time, or the 1 hour minimum.
• Users who fail to show up to their appointment on time will be charged the full amount and are no guaranteed to finish their experiment, depending on the rest of the schedule.
• Due to the dynamic nature of scheduling, keep checking the online calendar as things can change regularly.
• You are not required to use all of your reserved time. If you finish before the end of your reserved time email flow@creighton.edu at the time you finish and ask for the appointment to be shortened. Your appointment will be shortened to the time that you email the core.
• The user that reserved the time should be in the same lab as the person who uses the instrument, or risk being charged twice.
• All reservations are first come first serve. If your experiment is under a strict time constraint or will not be able to be predicted ahead of time, please reach out to the core so we can accommodate as many users as possible.
• All assisted appointments will take place during normal business hours (9am-5pm Monday-Friday). If your experiment requires assistance outside of these hours, please flow@creighton.edu to discuss scheduling.

• Any user wishing to use one of the cytometers without the help of core staff must first be trained by core staff.
• After your appointment users must refill the sheath, empty the waste, and clean up any personal items from around the cytometer. Failure to do so will result in an email reminder from the core. If this becomes a pattern, we reserve the right to revoke your access to the core and a requirement to only make assisted appointments.
• Each user must log out of the computer after you are done. Computer logs may be accessed to track usage, staying logged in for extended periods of time may lead to being charged for extra usage.

• During any assisted appointment, the core will put all of your acquired data in your labs shared drive folder after the appointment. Unassisted users are responsible for exporting their own data.
• Once a quarter, the core will delete all experiments on the instrument and backup the data in your labs shared drive folder.
• Users should only save data to designated data drives and not to the desktop. Data stored on the desktop may be removed immediately.
• Core Facility is not responsible for data that is lost or damaged. The backup of data is ultimately the responsibility of the user.

It would be to the benefit of the facility and the Creighton research community in general if the contribution made by the Flow Cytometry Core Facility was acknowledged in publications that include data produced in the facility.  A reprint containing this acknowledgment should also be sent to the facility.  Acknowledgment of the facility will help us to obtain continued outside funding for the facility.