Tulane School of Medicine acquires technology to advance cell research
October 28, 2026
cells Jeff Martin
Tulane University researchers have a powerful new tool for studying cells and how the body's smallest building blocks respond to infection and inflammation.
The Tulane School of Medicine recently acquired a full-spectrum flow cytometer, a state-of-the-art instrument that allows scientists to rapidly analyze individual cells with greater precision than older equipment. The cell analyzer, acquired through a $430,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health, is expected to support the work of at least a dozen NIH-funded researchers at Tulane and serve as a research and educational resource for scientists across the region.
“It allows us to stay on that front part of the wave of new technology,” said Kevin Zwezdaryk, assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Tulane School of Medicine.
The new instrument allows researchers to examine individual cell characteristics and is particularly useful for studying a cell’s immune response, potentially providing valuable clues about how illnesses develop and how the body responds.
The full-spectrum cytometer includes five lasers and 64 high-sensitivity fluorescence detection channels.
The lasers excite fluorescent markers that have been added to cells being studied, while detectors measure the light the markers emit. This allows the flow cytometer to record the signal from each cell, which can indicate a variety of characteristics about a cell, such as whether it is alive or dead and what type or subtype it is.
While the machine does not diagnose a disease on its own, it can provide valuable clues about a variety of cell processes for researchers to interpret.
It can also help researchers identify rare or abnormal cells and investigate responses to infections, diseases and vaccines.
For Zwezdaryk, the instrument will aid his studies into human cytomegalovirus, a common virus that remains in the body for life after infection. While it often causes few or no symptoms in otherwise healthy people, HCMV can cause serious illness in people with weakened immune systems and in newborns infected during pregnancy.
The flow cytometer can be used by scientists in many fields, including cancer research, neuroscience, immunology, infectious diseases, inflammation and vaccines. In the fields of neuroscience and immunology, the machine can analyze immune responses in conditions such as traumatic brain injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
It can also evaluate a cell’s response to gene therapies and study immune responses to cancer, autoimmune disease and transplantation.
Housed in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, the flow cytometer will support research across multiple disciplines while strengthening the School of Medicine’s role as a resource for biomedical scientists at Tulane and across the region.