This followed on from the hugely successful inaugural meeting held in Cambridge in 2007. 
flowcytometryUK aims to act as a focal point for all UK-based cytometrists and exists to organise local meetings such as those held recently in London, Cambridge and Cardiff; to organise national; to advertise meetings that will be of interest and relevance to our members; to advertise positions available and for members to ask questions that are pertinent to UK cytometry.
If you aren’t already on the mailing list, please visit www.flowcytometryuk.org or email Derek Davies.
The following review of the meeting was written by Maria Daly of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
The venue for flowcytometryUK 2009 was at Keble College in Oxford. This beautiful college was founded in 1870 and has a long history of education. The location provided on-site accommodation, a large dining hall, a modern lecture theatre, and an exhibition area. As everything we needed was within the college, it made a wonderful space for meeting colleagues old and new, listening to lectures, perusing the posters, and viewing new products over coffee with the commercial exhibitors. The lectures covered a wide range of flow cytometry applications.
The meeting began in the afternoon of Wed 15th July with a welcome from Derek Davies, the society chairman. The sessions were structured as follows:
Wednesday 15th July: Cancer and Stem Cells
We learned how flow cytometry is used to investigate innate drug resistance in cancer stem cells, to identify and study mouse mammary stem cells that reside in the basal cell tissue compartment, and to phenotype and monitor proliferative capacity of human mesenchymal stem cells. Clinical Cytometry Peter Openshaw talked about lung inflammation caused by viral infections. RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) and Swine flu were discussed. Quing Chang discussed the biological effects of hypoxia in pancreatic cancer using multi-parametric flow cytometry. Steve Garner presented the results of a platelet study where platelet bound fibrinogen was monitored.
Thursday 16th July: Practical Flow Cytometry
After breakfast on Thursday morning we heard the morning’s series of lectures which included talks on the measurement of FRET (Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer), phospho-signalling events, continuous monitoring of intracellular calcium concentration, male gamete maturation studies, and 9-colour flow cytometric evaluation of the blood cell phenotype in HTLV-1 infection. Imaging Cytometry After coffee, there was a series of lectures on Imaging Cytometry. Bill Telford introduced us to the world of Laser Scanning Cytometry, and the following talks in the session showed us some of the applications of Imaging Flow Cytometry.
Commercial Tutorials
Following on from lunch in the dining hall there was a choice of commercial workshops to attend. These were organized and run by six of the commercial suppliers of Flow Cytometry reagents and equipment. Stem Cell Biology Speakers described techniques used in stem cell identification, practical solutions to bio-safety when sorting human cells, and reagents employed as an aid to colour compensation.
Bob Spencer Memorial Lecture
The final talk of the day was dedicated to the memory of Bob Spencer, a valued flow cytometry service engineer who suffered with cancer. He will be missed by so many of us who were brightened by his smile and the knowledge that our instrument would be working again soon. David Headley, who described the application of flow cytometry to human cancer, gave this lecture.
Friday 17th July: Micro-cytometry
For me this was the most intriguing session of the entire meeting. Ger van den Engh took us into the world beneath our oceans where tiny marine microorganisms thrive. He showed the application of flow cytometry to the study of plankton, cyanobacteria, and coccolithophores. Nigel Rust, the same session gave a fascinating talk describing his experience in isolating coccoliths from marine clay. He used flow cytometry to separate sedimentary coccoliths from clay particles drawn from the ocean depths, using their optical characteristics. Other topics in this session described the analysis of bacterial viability, and the study of plasma micro-particles measuring only 100hm to 1mm in diameter and elevated in many vascular pathologies.
FLOWCYTOMETRYUK 2011
The next meeting will take place in July 2011, the venue has yet to be confirmed.
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