Booking Appointments

Appointment Booking Policies:

1. To book appointments, you must be registered with the facility and have a valid password. Please click here to register as a client. Once you are registered you may book sorting and consultation appointments. To book analytical instruments or automated magnetic cell separators you must be trained first.
2. INTERNAL CLIENTS: Appointments for all instruments may only be booked using our web-based scheduling system. Currently, Internal clients located in TMDT, SickKids, TGH, OCI/PMH, and MSH should have access to our server. Please e-mail the Facility Manager ( ) if you cannot access our server from one of these locations.

   EXTERNAL CLIENTS: Once registered, external clients located at U of T/Medical Sciences Building (MSB) should have access to our web-based scheduling system. Please e-mail the Facility Manager ( ) if you are not able to access our server. External clients who do not have access to our server are asked to book appointments by e-mailing one of our operators.

3. Appointments for all instruments can be booked NO MORE THAN four weeks in advance, and as little as one minute in advance of the start time. Please note that any users who use our resources WITHOUT making a booking in the web-based scheduling system will have their user privileges suspended.
4. Cell sorting appointments may be a minimum of one hour and a maximum of seven hours in length.
5. Sorts requiring special set-up conditions (e.g. changing laser wavelength) may require longer minimum booking times. This can be arranged at the discretion of the operator.
6. All reservations for cell sorters must include a minimum of 15 minutes of set-up time plus 15 minutes of cleaning. For example, if you want to sort for one hour, your reservation should be 90 minutes in length. Failure to include this set up/cleaning time may result in your sort being terminated early in order to provide adequate time to set up for the next sort appointment. Users will be billed for the full amount of time reserved, even if they finish early.
7. Emergency sort appointments: We provide a limited number of "emergency" appointments for after-hours cell sorting on Sickkids-UHN FCF instruments. Examples of an emergency scenario include samples from patients or moribund mice that have to be processed immediately and for which advanced booking is not feasible.

   Emergency appointments can be booked no more than 48 hours in advance and will generally be booked from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. (earlier starts are possible where scheduling permits). Several of our cell sorter operators (Pier, Leanne, Michelle and Julie) will be available on rotating shifts for these emergency appointments from Monday to Thursday most weeks, but in most cases we can accommodate only one emergency appointment each day. To book an emergency cell sorting appointment, please contact FCF manager Sherry Zhao by phone: 416-581-7654 or pager: 416-237-3754.

8. Users may be permitted to exceed their scheduled appointment time if the instrument has not been booked by someone else, but will be charged the normal rate for the extra time used. Please remember to logout when you are done as you will be charged based on the time you are logged in.
9. In general, a single appointment on any of the analytical cytometers will be limited to three hours. Requests for appointments longer than three hours can be made by e-mailing the operator responsible for that instrument. Please be sure to explain why you need an extended appointment. Users who are granted permission to make appointments lasting more than three hours will be given specific instructions on special procedures for instrument care and cleaning during such extended periods of use.
10. All reservations for analytical instruments must include time for cleaning and any applicable QC procedure.
11. We allow a 15 minute "grace period" for all appointments. Users who are more than 15 minutes late may have their appointments cancelled or given to another user without notification unless they call FCF staff to inform them when they will arrive. Latecomers' appointments will end promptly at the scheduled time if there is an appointment booked after them.
12. You may allow someone else to use your reservation time, but you MUST change the reservation in the online booking system. If this change occurs after the cancellation deadline has passed, you MUST inform the FCF manager by email. Failure to make this change may result in both parties being charged for the same reservation.
13. You may shift your appointment to an earlier or later time on the same day of your original reservation if the time has not yet been booked by someone else. You must book online FIRST and then inform the FCF manager by email that you shifted your appointment. If you do not inform the FCF Manager of this change, you may be charged for your original reservation on the online booking system as well as for your actual time according to the Instrument Log.
14. If you're booking an appointment on the same day that you're using the instrument, you must first book online, then write your name on the schedule which is printed out by 10a.m. each day.
15. Users may log on to the instrument computers for up to 30 minutes without being charged for the purpose of transferring data only. Instrument computers should NOT be used for off-line data analysis. The FCF has dedicated computer workstations that are not connected to instruments. They are available for users who wish to analyze their data using DIVA or FlowJo. If we detect instrument log-ins of more than 30 minutes without a matching reservation in the online booking system, we will assume that the instrument was used without making an appointment, and users will be charged accordingly.

Restricted Analytical Instruments:

1. While most of our instruments are universally accessible, access to some of our instruments is restricted to particular academic groups. The LSRII-GC instrument which is located on the 14th floor of TMDT is restricted to Genome Canada grant labs. The LSRII-OICR instrument which is located on the 8th floor of TMDT is restricted to OICR grant labs. The CantoII is located on the 8th floor of TMDT in a lentiviral facility and is restricted to users who have access to the lentiviral facility.

   To make a training appointment in order to get access to the lentiviral facility, please contact Monica Doedens, mdoedens@uhnresearch.ca. As these instruments are not located within the facility, security access must be obtained by filling out the TMDT Passcard Request form [pdf].

   Fill out the "NAME OF CARDHOLDER" portion of the TMDT Pass Card Request form, enter your existing card ID# (section (B)) and select the floor under "FLOOR ACCESS REQUIRED" and indicate the instrument you would like to access. Forms may be submitted to the FCF office.

Cancellation Policy:

1. Appointments for the BD or Coulter analyzers may be cancelled no less than 48 hours (not including weekends/holidays) in advance without penalty and can be done so online.

   Users cancelling analytical appointments less than 48 hours in advance (not including weekends/holidays), as well as no-shows will be billed for their appointments.

   Users cancelling analytical appointments less than 48 hours in advance (not including weekends/holidays) must cross their name out and write "cancelled" beside their name on the printed schedule for the instrument. The daily schedule for each analyzer is printed at 10 a.m. This will ensure that the instrument does not get left on unnecessarily and allows other users to use the instrument.
2. Cell sorting appointments may be cancelled no less than 72 hours in advance (excluding weekends/holidays) without penalty and can be done so online.

   In order to allow other users an opportunity to book a time slot for cell sorting, users who wish to cancel their appointments booked from less than 72 hours to more than 24 hours in advance, should send an email to the operators they booked. The operator will delete the appointment online and send a mass email to all users to let others know that there is a time slot available. Users who wish to take the time slot can book it by themselves. If the cancelled spot is completely substituted by someone else, we will not charge the previous user. If the spot is only substituted partially or cannot be replaced, we will charge the previous user accordingly.

   Users cancelling sorting appointments less than 72 hours in advance (excluding weekends/holidays), as well as no shows, will be billed for their appointments. Users who need to cancel the day of their appointment are required to inform the operator they booked with directly by calling the FCF.