ISAC E-News -- September 2005

• Sorted Bits
  • Nominations for Society Leadership Positions
  • ISAC Samuel A. Latt Meeting: Stem Cells in the Age of Fluorescence Technology
  • Practical Flow Cytometry
  • ISAC Strategic Planning
• Update ISAC XXIII Congress 2006
  • Abstracts
  • Tutorials and Workshops
• Reports from ISAC Committees and Task Forces
  • Scientific Communications Committee
• Upcoming Meetings
• Meeting Reports
  • Flow Cytometric Approaches to Study Plant Structural Cytomics
  • From the Cytometry Section of the Royal Microscopical Society in the UK

Sorted Bits

Nominations for Society Leadership Positions

The Nominating Committee is requesting recommendations from the membership for potential candidates for the offices of president-elect and treasurer, as well as one candidate each for analytical and clinical councilor positions and two candidates for technical councilors positions. It is very important that members who have displayed leadership capabilities, as exemplified by their contributions to the society, fill these positions. Suggestions for potential candidates should be sent to Harry Crissman, hcriss@adelphia.net, Scott Cram, lxc@lanl.gov, Jan Gratama, j.w.gratama@erasmusmc.nl, or Rachel Errington, erringtonrj@cardiff.ac.uk by 3 October 2005. Per the ISAC By-laws, nominees by petition will automatically be included on the election ballot. Nominations by petition will require 30 signatures from ISAC members to be submitted. Petitions are due to ISAC Headquarters by the close of business on 3 October 2005. Petitions by e-mail sent to (rkoepke@isac-net.org) will be accepted.

ISAC Membership Award -- Call for Nominations

The ISAC Awards Committee is soliciting nominations for the ISAC Membership Award. The award is given in recognition of exceptional service to the cytometric community. The recipient of this award is selected from a list of individuals nominated by the ISAC membership and need not be a member of the society. The awardee will be selected based on the will of the membership, as inferred from these nominations, so we encourage you to make your voice heard!

The awardee will receive a plaque and lifetime membership in ISAC.
Please send your nominations via e-mail to Harry Crissman, Chair, Awards Committee at isac@isac-net.org no later than Friday, 18 November 2005. Please provide a brief paragraph describing the attributes of the individual and their contributions to the society.

ISAC Samuel A. Latt Meeting: Stem Cells in the Age of Fluorescence Technology

by John Nolan <jnolan@ljbi.org>

The 2005 ISAC Samuel A. Latt Conference will be held in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, 6-9 November 2005. This year’s meeting will have a special focus on stem cell biology and technology, and will be held in conjunction with the annual meetings of the Australian Stem Cell Centre and the Australasian Flow Cytometry Group. The conference will include sessions on hematopoetic, central nervous system, and embryonic stem cells, as well as the directed differentiation and functional genomics of stem cells. In addition to the stem cell focus, the conference will feature sessions on marine cytometry and high-throughput screening. The educational program includes a pre-conference workshop on beginners flow cytometry and a range of tutorials on stem cell isolation, imaging and new technologies. Ger van den Engh of the Institute for Systems Biology will give the Latt Memorial Lecture for Systems Biology. Poster sessions, exhibits, awards and a poolside barbeque round out the schedule.

The abstract deadline is 16 September. Complete information is available at the Conference Web site: www.stemcells2005.org. (Ed. note: Because the Samuel A. Latt meetings are ISAC-sponsored meetings held in the years between regular ISAC congresses, they are given special recognition and prominent billing)

Practical Flow Cytometry

One can now access the entire contents of Howard M. Shapiro's important reference work, "Practical Flow Cytometry" 4th Ed. (published by John Wiley & Sons) free of charge. While you can't print the materials, you can read whatever you want. This is a great gift to the community by Molecular Probes and Invitrogen. You can get access to Shapiro’s great text by going to

http://probes.invitrogen.com/products/flowcytometry/practicalflowcytometry.html. Also, a short form that will allow you direct access to the registration page (your name and e-mail are required) is available at http://tinyurl.com/ab274.

ISAC Strategic Planning

Please see the Scientific Communications Committee report by Robert F. Murphy, SCC chair, below.

Update ISAC XXIII Congress 2006

by Paul Robinson <jpr@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu>

Well you just got over the 2004 meeting and the lab is back to normal. How would you feel if I told you in about two months you would be writing an abstract for the 2006 congress? In fact, the congress is less than nine months away.

So it’s time to start planning for how you are going to fund your next trip to ISAC. We have reduced the registration fee by about 30 percent - that’s a lot. However, the fact is that we need to have more people attend. The next congress will need to have at least 30 percent more attendees to make up for the reduction in fees. So bring your technicians and your students to the next congress. If you book your airline tickets early enough you will get the best value.

Abstracts

The call for abstracts is being prepared as we speak. So please start thinking about what your lab is going to present. This congress will have a significant increase in biological imaging, in keeping with the new strategic plan for ISAC. In addition, there will be introductory pre-congress courses in flow cytometry and imaging. I will keep you informed as to what is happening in the congress planning so please keep an eye on E-News. Congress news and information is all at http://www.isac2006.com.

Tutorials and Workshops

The tutorials and workshops are always popular activities at ISAC Congresses, and planning is underway for the 2006 Congress. The Congress organizing committee is soliciting your input on topics for these sessions. If you are planning to attend the tutorials and/or workshops, you can complete a survey of potential topics on the Congress web site. If you are interested in presenting a tutorial or workshop, you can respond to the Call for Proposals, also at the Congress web site. For more information check out the Tutorials and Workshops page on the Congress Web site (http://www.isac2006.com). Input is requested by 1 October 2005.

Reports from ISAC Committees and Task Forces

Scientific Communications Committee

by Robert F. Murphy, Carnegie Mellon University, SCC Chair <Murphy@cmu.edu>

The Scientific Communications Committee has concluded two major projects, helping negotiate a new publishing contract with Wiley Liss and establishing an expanded ISAC Web presence through a contract with J. Paul Robinson at Purdue University. ISAC Council approved both of these contracts in May. Management of most ISAC Web content was successfully passed to a new server, owned by ISAC and located and managed by Purdue. The changeover occurred 1 July. The contract with Purdue calls for it to move significant content that is currently on the Purdue Cytometry site to the new ISAC site. A new Web editor, Bartek Rajwa, has been appointed and he will be responsible for keeping content up to date and, with the help of ISAC members, generating new content. If you have ideas for things to put on the site, please send your suggestions to Bartek at rajwa@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu! The next priority of the committee is to participate in the ongoing ISAC Strategic Planning process by providing action plans to improve the journal. Ideas being considered are changing the name of the journal, increasing the number of published articles related to imaging, and soliciting reviews related to cytometry from leading biomedical researchers. A survey was sent to ISAC members last week. Check your e-mail box if you haven’t responded yet!

Upcoming Meetings

Annual Course on Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting for Biotechnology, 12-16 September 2005, Vienna, Austria. For additional information please visit our Web site at www.boku.ac.at/iam/AdvTraining or send an e-mail to nicole.borth@boku.ac.at. Or contact Dr.

Nicole Borth, Department of Biotechnology, Univ.f.Bodenkultur Wien, Tel: +43 1 36006 6232

Royal Microscopical Society Course on Flow Cytometry, 12-16 September 2005, York University, England. The Flow Cytometry portion is made up of three modules: basic course, clinical

applications and applications in cell biology. A draft program for this five-day course can be found at http://www.rms.org.uk/event_flow.shtml. Contact Dr. Michael G. Ormerod, m.g.ormerod@btinternet.com) phone: +44(0)1737241726 or Clare Oxenbury clare@rms.org.uk.

Chesapeake Cytometry Consortium Annual Fall Meeting, Friday, 23 September 2005 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Johns Hopkins University, Montgomery County Campus Rockville, Md. Program and registration information can be obtained at: http://www.ccc-flow.org. The $45 meeting fee includes breakfast lunch, and coffee breaks. The deadline for online registration is Friday, 16 September. Register early to guarantee your spot since space is limited. For additional information or comments, contact Mehrnoosh Abshari at absharim@niaid.nih.gov.

GLIIFCA 14, 30 September-2 October 2005, Milwaukee, Wis. Details are at www.gliifca.org. The Great Lakes region is continually expanding and it is not a requirement that you live in a Great Lakes state or province to attend this meeting. This inexpensive meeting is packed with great science and plenty of networking time. Once again, the meeting will be preceded by a Resource (Core) Manager's Workshop (30 September 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.). Topics this year are service contracts, negotiation skills, biohazard awareness and service fee cost analysis. This workshop will be useful to anyone who is interested in lab management issues. Details and schedule can be found at www.gliifca.org. Contact Julie Auger (jauger@flowcity.bsd.uchicago.edu).

20^th Annual Clinical Cytometry Society (CCS) Meeting and Course, 16-18 October (meeting) and 14-16 October (course) Hyatt Regency, Savannah, Ga. There will be a great program again this year, with full CME credits. Also two post-meeting working groups sessions are planned, one on ZAP-70, and the other on the cytometry of circulating endothelial cells. Check www.cytometry.org for details.

The 15^th Cytometry Development Workshop: Technologies for Cell Analysis, 27-29 October 2005, Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, Calif. Discussions at the workshop have played a significant role in a number of past cytometry advances. In addition to the normal talks on all aspects of cytometry hardware and software, this year there will be special sessions on spectral cytometry organized by John Nolan and automated microscopy organized by Jeff Price. A high turnout is expected and the pre-reserved room block has been filled. There may still be additional rooms available outside the room block for those who are still interested in attending. Registration and housing forms can be obtained from http://murphylab.web.cmu.edu/CDW.

Distance Learning Course on Flow Cytometry. The next Distance Learning Course on Flow Cytometry will start on Tuesday 1 November. This is a 10-week introductory course run under the auspices of the University of Ulster. Course tutor: Michael Ormerod. Details of the course can be found at http://campusone.ulster.ac.uk/display.cgi/18.

2005 ISAC Samuel A. Latt Conference, 6-9 November 2005, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Learn more in Samuel A. Latt meeting article above or at www.stemcells2005.org.

Practical Applications of Flow Cytometry Course, 22 November 2005, Imperial College London/St Mary’s. This course will cover the basics of flow cytometry and also more advanced applications of flow cytometry. In addition to flow cytometry, there will be seminars on Elispot and Luminex technologies. There will also be two hours of hands-on training on flow cytometers, four colour analysis, cell sorting, and analysis software. This course is CPD (Continuing Professional Development) approved from The Institute of Biomedical Scientists (IBMS) and it is worth eight credits. For more information and to apply, look at our Web site and use the online registration form under flow cytometry link: http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/about/institutes/wfi/flow/default.html. Contact Niga Nawroly at n.nawroly@imperial.ac.uk with questions.

6^th Indo-US Cytometry Workshop on “Applications of Cytometry for Stem Cell Analysis,

Monitoring of Stem Cell Phenotype, Proliferation and Apoptosis”, 5-12 February 2006, Biomedical Technology Wing, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, Poojapura, Trivandrum 695012, India.. The workshop will have lectures and wet labs on applications of cytometry for the study of stem cell biology, proliferation and marker expression. Lectures in the morning will be followed by hands-on lab demonstrations. Dr. Lissy K.Krishnan will serve as Indian host and coordinator. Dr. Awtar Krishan, from the University of Miami, is the workshop organizer. Further details may be obtained by contacting Dr. Kalyanakrishnan at lissykk@mail.sctimst.ac.in or Dr. Krishan at akrishan@med.Miami.edu.

Meeting Reports

Flow Cytometric Approaches to Study Plant Structural Cytomics

Advanced Course “Flow Cytometric Approaches to Study Plant Structural Cytomics” May 20-21, 2005, organized by João Loureiro (jloureiro@bio.ua.pt), Conceição Santos (csantos@bio.ua.pt) and Eleazar Rodriguez (a24259@alunos.bio.ua.pt), Laboratory of Biotechnology and Cytomics (http://www.bio.ua.pt/LabCitomBiotechn/LabBioCyt.htm), Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Portugal.
 
The application of flow cytometry (FCM) to plants is still limited to a few applications. In Portugal we are presently the only laboratory doing research in this area. For this reason the organisation of an advanced course in plant FCM seemed an important task as it is necessary to promote this powerful technique among Portuguese researchers, and enlighten them to the applications of this technique.
The fifteen open spaces were rapidly exceeded, leading to a final number of twenty-three participants from six different Portuguese institutions. Unfortunately no member of ISAC attended to the course. Several national companies supported the course with consumables. The course itself presented introductory lectures in Feulgen densitometry given by Dr. Jan Barto, Institute of Experimental Botany, Olomouc, Czech Republic, and by Prof. Johann Greilhuber, Institute of Botany, University of Vienna, Austria. Practical sessions gave participants the opportunity to prepare and analyze plant material. Overall, the advanced course fulfilled the expectations of the participants as many compliments were given throughout and at the end of the course. The participants also felt encouraged to use FCM to solve some of their problems and initial contacts were made for future work in this area in Portugal and several hypothesis of collaboration appeared.

From the Cytometry Section of the Royal Microscopical Society in the UK

by Derek Davies <derek.davies@cancer.org.uk>

This summer has been a quiet time but we have several meetings planned for the coming months. We ran a successful symposium at the recent Pathological Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Meeting titled "Applications of Flow Cytometry and Confocal Microscopy in Pathology." This included two overview talks from Derek Davies (Flow Cytometry) and Richard Poulsom (Confocal Microscopy) and three talks showing specific applications in relation to clinical DNA analysis (John Lawry), imaging of Langerhans cells in human epidermis (Matthew Collin) and combining flow and imaging to study T cell extravasation (John Kirby).