About
The Flow Cytometry Section was formed in 1988. The Committee is made up from a cross section of cytometrists representing research, clinical and industrial aspects of flow cytometry. Collectively, the Committee acts as a point of contact for information and advice. We try to represent a cross-section of disciplines and support our members with a series of educational and scientific meetings throughout the year (meetings, courses and workshops). We are also recognised by the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) as an ‘Associated Society’.
The Committee oversees the running of several well-established meetings.
- An annual week-long course aimed at beginners and those who want to expand their knowledge of flow cytometry. It comprises a two-day introduction to flow cytometry and then three days on either research or clinical applications.
- The Flow Facilities Meeting which is held annually during the first working week of the year.
- FlowcytometryUK, which alternates annually between a one-day meeting and a three-day meeting.
In addition, several one-day focussed meetings are organised when appropriate and in the past these have been on data analysis, cell sorting, and DNA analysis by flow cytometryThese can also be run in collaboration with other Societies e.g. the British Society of Immunology and can be scientific or training courses.
The Flow Cytometry medal is awarded once every two years at the flowcytometryUK meeting, and the aim of this is to celebrate outstanding work applying cytometric techniques in the field of immunology or cell biology. The medal is open to applicants worldwide who have been engaged in independent research for less than 10 years, or are in a tenured academic, or clinical, support role.
Anyone working in the field of cytometry is welcome to come forward with ideas for courses and you are encouraged to contact the section Committee if you would like to help.
The RMS is committed to being a welcoming, inclusive Society and encourages diversity across all activities and in the membership of our committees and groups.
If you are interested in joining any of the committees in the future, please visit our Join a Committee page.
RMS Section Awards
Launched in 2014, the Section Awards (formerly known as the Medal Series) recognise those who have made significant contributions to the field of microscopy. The RMS Section Awards celebrate outstanding scientific achievements across all areas of microscopy and flow cytometry with each RMS Science Section able to select a winner for their own award.
Find out more
Committee
Karen Hogg
Karen is currently a Senior Experimental Officer at the University of York, Bioscience Technology Facility. Karen underpins the scientific service within the Imaging and Cytometry Laboratory and takes a lead role in the research, operation and method development of cell sorting and analysis. As such, Karen’s expertise is utilized for a wide range of diverse applications both within and external to the Department of Biology. Karen is also a co-organizer and tutor on multiple flow cytometry courses throughout the UK. She got her BSc, Joint Honours in Biology and Biochemistry at Keele University, U.K. 1991-1995; then obtained her MSc in Applied Parasitology & Medical Entomology from the University of Liverpool, U.K. 1995-1996; then proceeded to obtain her Phd. from the School of Biology, University of Leeds, U.K. 1996-1999
Gareth Howell
Gareth is the Flow Cytometry Facility Manager at the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research at the University of Manchester.
Jessica Back
Jessica B. Back, Ph.D., SCYM(ASCP)CM is an Assistant Professor – Research in the Department of Oncology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, and Deputy Director of the Microscopy, Imaging, and Cytometry Resources (MICR) Core at the Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, USA. As Deputy Director of a Shared Resources Laboratory (SRL), much of her focus is on efficient and effective delivery of flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, and small animal imaging services to facility users. Her research interests lie in the tumor microenvironment, particularly on the role the immune system plays in cancer therapies and tumor regression. Dr. Back is actively involved in several regional and international cytometry societies, currently serving as Treasurer of the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC), a member of the Great Lakes International Imaging and Cytometry Association (GLIIFCA) Board of Directors, and Chair of the Cytometry Examination Committee for the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP) Board of Certification. She has formerly served as an ISAC Councilor (2018-2022) and was an ISAC SRL Emerging Leader (2015-2019).
Derek Davies
Derek is an independent Cytometry consultant offering education and training in all forms of cytometry. He was previously the National Science Technology Platform (STP) Training Lead at the Francis Crick Institute in London where his role was to develop Educational and Training courses to support Biomedical Research in the UK and beyond. He co-organises the section’s annual flow cytometry course at the University of York and is active in promotion of cytometry via focussed meetings and other courses. He is one of the principal organisers of the flowcytometryUK annual meeting. Derek is particularly keen to promote cytometry education within the UK and beyond.
Irene Del Molino Del Barrio
Irene currently works at GSK developing multi-paramter flow cytometry panels for clinical trial sample analysis, aiming to understand how these biomarkers relate to disease heterogeneity, drug-target interactions and patient responses. This build ups from her prior role in the Cancer ImmunoTherapy Accelerator (CITA), where she developed similar panels to analyse PBMCs of cancer patients across different recruitment sites. Those panels were used and further expanded during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic to monitor the immune system in COVID-19 patients, including cancer patients that had contracted the disease. Previously she worked at the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral researcher where she focused on the identification and validation of novel targets and molecules for the treatment of Friedreich's Ataxia. She is particularly interested in educating and promoting flow cytometry to new users.
Helen Ferry
Helen’s interest in flow cytometry began when she was a DPhil student investigating B cell tolerance in autoimmunity. In 2007 Helen became the flow cytometry facility manager for a haematopoietic stem cell group in the WIMM, Oxford. Three years later, she took up her current position as the manager of the Translational Gastroenterology Unit’s flow cytometry facility, based in the John Radcliffe Hospital. Helen is a member of the Oxford Cytometry Club committee.
Beverley Goward
Bev first encountered flow cytometry during her post-graduate research at Imperial College London, investigating immunological causes of unexplained recurrent miscarriage. For the past 18 years she has worked as a technical sales specialist in flow cytometry for several companies, including Miltenyi Biotec, ThermoFisher Scientific and BD, before joining Sony Biotechnology in 2023. Her commitment to the scientific community extends beyond commercial support, with a strong focus on providing education and training for all aspects of flow cytometry.
Yanping Guo
Yanping is the manager of the Flow Cytometry Translational Technology Platform at UCL Cancer Institute. After receiving her DPhil degree from Oxford University, Yanping did her postdoc research at UCL focusing on the hematopoietic stem cells and leukaemia. She enjoys helping users with training, experimental design and data analysis for flow cytometry in different disciplines.
She is also has a keen interest in the teaching and mentoring of younger scientists.
Rajeev Gupta
Rajeev is an Associate Professor of Haematology in the UCL Cancer Institute and a Consultant Haematologist at UCL Hospitals, where he is the clinical director for laboratory haematology.
Andrea Holme
Andrea holds an academic-related position leading the Iain Fraser Cytometry Centre at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Her experience in core facility management encompasses establishing and managing core facilities spanning Singapore, Canada, Australia, and the UK, developing and onboarding national technology infrastructure, and several reference centres. Her work has encompassed a wide range of areas including the EU/Global Bioimaging, proof of principle cell sorting for marine mammal cells, immunology based clinical trials and R&D in a start-up company. As an active member of the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC), she is an Emeritus ISAC Marylou Ingram Scholar, was awarded the best paper in cytometry for her work in high content image cytometry, served on the eLearning tasking force and more recently the ISAC SRL Recognition Program Task Force and the RMS Flow Cytometry Committee.
Katy Moffat
Katy is the Flow Cytometry Facility Manager at The Pirbright Institute, which has analysers and sorters in both high and low containment facilities to support research into infectious diseases of livestock. She provides training and support to ensure research groups collect the best quality data from their flow experiments. Our facilities provide a National capability and are available to organisations worldwide
Barry Moran
Barry runs the Flow Cytometry Facility within the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. This is the busiest flow core in Ireland, with state of the art instrumentation. Barry is very active in the flow community and is a director (1 of 2) of the Cytometry Society of Ireland. He is particularly interested in applying high parameter cytometry to decipher autoimmune disease. He attained his PhD from Trinity College Dublin (Immunology) and MSc from the University of Glasgow (Medical Genetics).
Radhika Patel
Radhika currently holds the position of Senior Scientist at the AstraZeneca Flow Cytometry Centre of Excellence in Cambridge. She heads the AstraZeneca Internal Global Flow Cytometry Training Program and led the transition to the new AstraZeneca Discovery Centre building. Radhika is interested in implementing and utilizing automated processes in the lab, and she provides support for multiple projects, including immunophenotyping for drug target identification and validation screens. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, she managed the flow cytometry hub for the National Lung and Heart Institute which is part of Imperial College London. Additionally, during her tenure in London, she served as Treasurer for the London Cytometry Club.
Hilary Sandig
Hilary is currently a group leader at CRUK-TDL, where flow cytometry is used to progress immuno-oncology drug projects. After completing a PhD at Imperial College London, and several postdoctoral positions, she moved to Medimmune to support the use of flow cytometry across functions. This led her to a position. at Autolus, again with a focus on flow. The technology has been central to her career as an immunologist in academia and industry.
Rachael Walker
Rachael is the Head of Flow Cytometry Core Facility at Babraham Institute, Cambridge. The core provides a service to Babraham Institute and biotech companies that are housed on the Babraham Research Campus. She is also very involved with the flow cytometry community, on a local, national and International level. Rachael is one of the principle organisers of the flowcytometryUK biennial meeting and also the Advances in Cytometry meeting.
Rachael has been awarded an ‘Emerging Leader ‘ scholarship from the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC).
AGM
The 2023 Annual General Meeting of the Flow Cytometry Section of the Royal Microscopical Society, took place at the flowcytometryUK 2023 meeting in Cambridge on 16 November 2023.