Flow Cytometry
The Flow Cytometry Section was established specifically to encourage communication between cytometrists in both clinical and research laboratories.
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.

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Dr Karen Hogg
Flow Cytometry Section Chair
University of York
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 -
Mr Derek Davies
Flow Cytometry Section Vice Chair
The Francis Crick Institute
Derek is the Science Technology Platform (STP) Training lead at the Francis Crick Institute in London. For many years prior to this he ran the flow cytometry core facility at the Crick (and its founder Institutes). His role now involves delivering high-quality education and training in flow cytometry and other technologies to end-users both at the Crick and outside. 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 flowcytometryUK meetings. Derek is particularly keen to promote cytometry education within the UK and beyond. -
Dr Gareth Howell
Flow Cytometry Section Deputy Chair
University of Manchester
Gareth is the Flow Cytometry Facility Manager at the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research at the University of Manchester. -
Mr Anthony Carter
Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital
Anthony has been the Merseyside and Cheshire Haemato-Oncology Diagnostic Service manager (since 2011), and have over 20 years' experience in clinical diagnostic and research flow cytometry. I have worked closely with the academic Consultants from the University of Liverpool and have specialist interest in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia, particularly in the p53 signalling pathway, and have several publications in this area. I have also worked in collaboration with industry partners to develop new diagnostic testing methodologies, including specialist reagents, and am a member of the national PNH specialist interest group, which published guidelines on standardisation of diagnostic testing across multiple platforms " Inter-laboratory validation of a harmonized PNH flow cytometry assay:". -
Dr Helen Ferry
University of Oxford
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. -
Dr Yanping Guo
University College London
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 keen about teaching and mentoring of younger scientists. -
Dr Robert Jepras
GlaxoSmithKline
Rob has worked in and led several research teams in both industry and public health. He has spent over 20 years at GSK in the UK working in both Drug Development and Drug Discovery supporting both product development and drug research. Rob currently works in Drug Discovery Sciences at GSK, leading drug discovery and capability projects and supporting pre- candidate drug discovery. Recent work focuses on using high content multi parametric microscopic technologies for phenotyic screening using human disease relevant systems, and the develpoment of microscale technologies (microfluidics/nanowells) to enhance drug discovery efforts. -
Dr Katy Moffat
The Pirbright Institute
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 -
Mrs Niga Nawroly
ACEA Biosciences
Niga is a qualified immunologist from Imperial College London with 10 years’ experience of the management of a successful flow cytometry facility. She has also worked for a number of flow cytometry reagents and instrumentation companies. She is interested in education in flow cytometry either as an organiser or a teacher/trainer. She has been an active member of the Flow Cytometry Committee for a number of years. -
Dr Rachael Walker
Babraham Institute
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). -
Dr Fredrik Wallberg DipRMS
Institute of Cancer Research
Fredrik runs the flow Cytometry Facility at the Chelsea campus of Institute of Cancer Research. He has been the manager since 2006. He is also involved in time lapse microscopy, confocal microscopy and high content microscopy. Before he joined the Institute of cancer research he worked both in Sweden and the Netherlands with flow Cytometry. He has succesfully completed the RMS Diploma in which his project focussed on cell death and time lapse microscopy. -
Mr Mark Cheetham
Propel Labs
Mark currently looks after the European interests of Propel Labs Inc, a Fort Collins based company developing Flow Cytometry solutions for both individual users and corporate entities. Mark started his Flow Cytometry career in 1984 running a facility at Guy’s Hospital, London. Since then he has worked for Flow Cytometer manufacturers, training and supporting customers as well as launching and marketing new systems. He has been lucky enough to be involved in the development of several successful software, hardware and reagent products. During his career Mark has been very active in the education of both new and advanced Flow Cytometry users. He has participated in many UK and International courses presenting on the principles and applications of Flow Cytometry. -
Dr Andrea Holme
University of Aberdeen
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. -
Dr Barry Moran
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
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). -
Dr Hilary Sandig
CRUK-Therapeutic discovery laboratories
Hilary is currently a group leader at the CRUK-Therapeutic discovery laboratories, 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 and she is delighted to join the RMS Flow Cytometry committee -
Dr Irene Del Molino Del Barrio
Flow Cytometry Section Early Career Representative
University College London & King's College London
Irene currently works between UCL and KCL as part of the Cancer ImmunoTherapy Accelerator (CITA) award with Prof. Adrian Hayday, and formerly Dr. Susanne Heck and William Day. Her current role in the consortium is designing flow cytometry immunophenotyping panels to analyse PBMCs of cancer patients and standardise this process to allow for computational analysis across different sites. 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
The 2020 Annual General Meeting of the Flow Cytometry Section of the Royal Microscopical Society will take place virtually on 16 November 2020. The day will also include a number of talks given by the Mid-Career Award winners.
All the Society’s AGMs are free to attend for both members and non-members.
If you would like to make a committee member nomination, or if you are interested in joining any of the committees in the future, please contact Allison Winton.
More information can be found on the event homepage - Microscopy: Advances, Innovation, Impact 2020.
Download the Flow Cytometry 2020 AGM Agenda

