ISAC E-News June 2006

• ISAC XXIII
  • Award Winners
• Council Elections, Plans and Decisions
• Upcoming Meetings
  • New York Flow Users Group.
  • German Society for Cytometry
  • Cytometry Development Workshop
• Meeting Reports
  • 6th Indo-US Cytometry Workshop

ISAC XXIII

by Paul Robinson (jpr@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu)

I write to you for the first time as president of the International Society for Analytical Cytology.  Thank you for your support and dedication to the field of cytometry.

This letter comes appropriately from Quebec City, Canada, where we just concluded the 23^rd International Congress. I have to say , that I will be most relieved within a few hours when it is over as it has been a lot of work indeed. The scientific sessions were superb – the program team did a great job. I want to publicly acknowledge the tremendous support of our major sponsor Becton Dickinson who allowed us to facilitate some added extras. Beckman-Coulter, Invitrogen, Icyt Visionary Biosciences and Dako were also important sponsors for the congress – thanks for these efforts. I want to acknowledge the wonderful work of the FASEB congress management team led by Geri Swindle and Jean Lash as well as their outstanding team. It is they who should take the credit for the smooth operation and careful financial management of the congress. Thank you all.

We achieved our goal of bringing more people to the congress – a total attendance of 1,410 registered individuals of 1410. That’s really fantastic. What is truly outstanding is that 87 of these were students. The ISAC Booth booth with the Wall of History was a hit – and thanks go to Monica Shively who did the lion’s share of that project. I also want to acknowledge and thank the many people in my own laboratory who worked tirelessly over many weeks to prepare materials for the ISAC Booth booth and the congress generally.

I hope that you all come to our next meeting which will be May 17^th-21^st, 2008 in Budapest, Hungary where the President-Elect, Bob Murphy will run another great congress, I am sure. So, that's it from this congress – we will post the daily newsletters we printed everyday on the website Web site soon.

The number of exhibitors hit an all – time high (107 booths) all of which provided valuable new information to congress attendees.

Award Winners

At each International Congress, ISAC recognizes those who have contributed to the field of cytometry in a broad variety of ways.

The 2006 ISAC Award Winners were:

• Outstanding Poster Award: Younes Leysi-Derilou, PhD Student, Chem. Eng. Department, Laval University ,
• ISAC Scholars: Dario Coletti, Italy; Tytus Bernas, Poland; Dominik Lenz, US United States; Lori Yang, US United States; Ryan Brinkman, Canada; Claudio Panzarella, Italy; Reiner Schulte, Germany; Laura Adang, US United States.
• Exceptional Student Award: Jennifer Lemon
• President’s Award of Excellence: Zachary Pincus
• Distinguished Service Award: Brian Mayall and Ole Didrik Laerum
• Membership Award: Gunter Valet and Michael Ormerod
• Fulwyler Award for Innovative Excellence: Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz

Council Elections, Plans and Decisions

Election Results: Bob Murphy, President president Elect elect; Alex Nakeff, Treasurer treasurer; Elaine Kunze, Mike Keeney, Gary Durak, and Attilla Tarnok Councilors councilors. Janos Szollosi and Durk Van Bockstaele were selected to fill the Councilor councilor position s vacated by the election of Alex Nakeff and Bob Murphy to when they were elected to their respective positions.

• Strategic Plan: Journal (Bob Murphy) Cytometry – Editor and Sale Part B. Plans to sell part B of Cytometry to the Clinical Cytometry Society are moving ahead. Chuck Goolsby, who has done an excellent job of renewing the quality of part A, has announced his wish to focus exclusively on part B of Cytometry. He will be stepping down 1 January 1, 2007. Watch for more information from ISAC about the search process and be thinking about outstanding candidates to take over the crucial position.
• Strategic Plan: Organization (Alex Nakeff). Search for Executive Director of ISAC. The search committee led by Maria Pallavicini is continuing its search for a new executive director of ISAC who will devote a minimum of 50% percent time on ISAC business and most importantly on implementation of the new strategic plan.
• Strategic Plan: Education and Training (Lori Kreuger). The ISAC strategic plan prioritizes education.  In order to implement this element of the strategic plan ISAC will be seeking to appoint a leader responsible for directing cytometry education and training.  A significant stipend will be offered to the successful candidate.  Those interested in getting involved and/or applying for the position should watch for the ISAC announcement (e-mailed to all members) and the ISAC web Web site.
• Membership (Laura Teodori and Zofia Maciorowsky). Laura and Zofia have been reappointed as co-chairs after having done such a fantastic job over the past two years.

Upcoming Meetings

New York Flow Users Group.

The 3^rd Annual Annual Western New York Flow Users Group will hold its annual meeting on 12 July, 2006 at the University of Rochester , from 9 a.m . till to 5 p.m. Information can be found at: http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/wnyfug/. Contact: Timothy Bushnell, Director, CPBR Flow Lab, University of Rochester, phone: 585-273-1361 

German Society for Cytometry

The annual meeting of the German Society for Cytometry (DGfZ), October 18^th-21^st 2006 in Leipzig, Germany. Deadline for abstract submission in is August 1^st. The organizers of this year's DGfZ meeting are compiling the platform for this year's meeting. Keep an eye on out for up-to-date information provided on the new DGfZ WebPages Web site (www.dgfz.org) that will be released in a completely refreshed design very soon. Contact: Attila Tarnok, President DGfZ, Universität Leipzig, Herzzentrum, Klinik für Kinderkardiologie, Strümpellstrasse 39, 04289 Leipzig, phone: +49-(0)341-8 65 24 30

Cytometry Development Workshop

The Sixteenth Cytometry Development Workshop "Technologies for Cell Analysis" will be held from October 20^th to 23^rd, 2006 at the beautiful Asilomar Conference Grounds on the Monterrey Peninsula in Pacific Grove, California.

The purpose of this workshop series is to bring together those people directly involved in the development of the technologies for cell analysis, including both flow cytometry and image cytometry. A number of important developments in cytometry had their origins at the Workshop. The early workshop registration fee (before July 1^st) is only $100 (this fee is waived for students and first-time attendees). Student awards are also available to cover housing and meal costs. The cost of lodging at Asilomar includes all meals. The workshop will begin at 4:30 on Friday , 20 October 20 th and the workshop will conclude at 9:00 PM p.m. on Monday, October 23^rd (charges for room on Monday night and breakfast and lunch on Tuesday are included in the package price). Afternoons are unscheduled to allow participants free time to enjoy the area and for individual discussions.

P.S. Spouses are encouraged to come to Asilomar. It is a beautiful vacation spot (near Pebble Beach and the quaint artists' village of Carmel) and the weather is always nice in October.

Workshop Co-Chairs: Robert F. Murphy, Carnegie Mellon University and Howard Shapiro, Shapiro Laboratory

Meeting Reports

6th Indo-US Cytometry Workshop

by Awtar Krishan (akrishan@med.miami.edu)

The 6^th Indo-US Cytometry Workshop on monitoring of stem cell phenotype, proliferation and apoptosis was held February 5-11, 2006. Organizers were : Awtar Krishan, Scott Cram and Lissy Krishnan.

The Indo-US Cytometry workshops workshops seek to interface experts in cytometry with researchers in India and neighboring countries who desire training in the latest analytical methods. Lectures by experts from USA, UK, the United States, the UK, Canada, Europe and India are followed by wet lab sessions and tutorials. The workshop focused on monitoring of stem cell phenotype, proliferation and apoptosis and was hosted by the SC Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology in Trivandrum, India. Workshop participants included 35 students and 25 faculty members from India and abroad participated in this workshop. In addition to instruments at the host institutions, Becton Dickinson India Pvt. Ltd ., Beckman Coulter International SA, NPE Systems Inc, Guava Technology Inc. and Dako Cytomation brought their latest instruments and staff to the workshop. Support from ISAC, International Union Against cancer (UICC), NIH National Institutes of Health, Indo-US Technology Forum and other Indian funding agencies was critical for success of this workshop.  The 7^th Indo-US Workshop "Cell Proliferation, Apoptosis and Signal Transduction" will be held in February, 2007. Contact Dr. Krishan at akrishan@med.miami.edu or Scott Cram at lxc@lanl.gov.