Elaine Kunze

After obtaining my baccalaureate degree in biochemistry from UNC-Greensboro, I worked for over 10 years in several research labs learning techniques as diverse as cell culture, electron microscopy and cell electrophoresis. In 1987 Penn State purchased its first flow cytometer thanks to a NIH Sig grant. I was lucky to be the resident cell biologist in a lab of biophysicists, learning flow from lab members who pushed the technology to its limits. Shortly thereafter Penn State established a core flow cytometry facility and I became the lab manager. During this time I also coordinated five NASA rocket launches in White Sands, NM.

Right from the beginning I was encouraged to become a member of ISAC, and attended my first meeting in Asilomar. It became immediately obvious that the flow community was large, diverse, friendly and willing to share information at all levels. It still amazes me that with the ISAC meetings and the Purdue flow newsnet those of us running isolated flow facilities have access to the best brains in the business, available for the asking.

In 1995 the facility was lucky enough to become a part of the interdisciplinary Huck Institute for the Life Sciences which is dedicated to enhancing core facilities and funding cross-disciplinary faculty and research. This also increased the profile of the facility which now draws users from five colleges and our Materials Research Laboratory. In 2000 we purchased both a confocal and a digital microscope and added those services to the facility. Since Penn State's medical school is two hours away in Hershey with its own flow facility, most of our research base is non-clinical and some of it is even non-biological (nanoparticles, material surfaces).

Campaign Statement

My ISAC perspective springs directly from my experience providing services in a core facility. The facility serves a variety of researchers ....undergraduates, grad students, post-docs and PIs with a broad range of research interests. The job involves education and training, literature reviews, help with experimental design and provides a critical review for flow data prior to publication. I would like to expand ISACs efforts in this area by formalizing guidelines for data presentation and relevant statistics.

Secondly, I would work to recruit younger scientists into ISAC. I would make a direct appeal to core facility directors to encourage their students and post-docs to apply for travel grants, attend ISAC and publish in Cytometry.

My final reason for wanting to serve as a councilor is to try to repay the flow community and ISAC for the most exciting and interesting 20 years of my life. Thank you, ISAC.