ISAC E-News - Summer 2001

President's Address

Lisa Staiano-Coico
President
E-mail: lisasc@mail.med.cornell.edu

As I reflect on this past year, I am astounded and awed by what the future holds. The unveiling of the draft sequence of the human genome in February 2001 has led to unprecedented opportunities for scientific discovery and medical breakthroughs.

Capitalizing on these breakthroughs will require the abilities of engineers, chemists and computational scientists, all working at the interface of biology and clinical medicine. ISAC is a society that has always fostered active interaction and collaboration among the physical, biological and clinical sciences.

Thirty years ago, flow cytometry was in its infancy. Fueled by the need to quantify cellular features within individual cells, engineers like Mack Fulwyler worked along side biologists and mathematicians to develop the first generations of flow cytometers.

The advent of monoclonal antibody technology and the AIDS epidemic further fueled the discipline of cytometry toward the development of more user-friendly cytometers that could be transitioned into routine clinical settings.

ISAC members like Janis Giorgi forged new paths in the understanding of lymphocyte function during HIV infection which led to the complex phenotyping strategies routinely employed today.

Today, ISAC members continue to forge new ideas to develop even simpler and more robust instruments that can be used in remote sites and in developing countries where traditional flow cytometers are frequently unable to function.

XXI Congress
ISAC Congresses have always been dynamic arenas for the collision of diverse ideas and the creation of new and exciting ways to utilize technology to understand cell function.

During the past six months we have conducted a membership survey to assess the state of the Society and to look at future directions. I want to personally thank all the current and former ISAC members who completed the survey; your input was invaluable in providing ISAC leadership with a roadmap for further improving the Society.

The results of the survey are available in the members only section of the Web site. The response rate of 27% was outstanding and shows your clear commitment to ISAC.

In May 2001 the ISAC Council, with the results of the survey in hand, conducted a strategic planning retreat to see how we might better serve your needs as well as to ensure that ISAC remains a vital and ever-evolving organization.

We identified a number of key strengths of ISAC. These include:

• The International nature of the Society;
• The diversity of the membership;
• The collaborative nature of ISAC members; and
• The focus on bringing technology to bear on important and pressing clinical problems.

During the coming years we must leverage these strengths and expand our horizons into new and emerging technologies where we, as ISAC members, can contribute greatly. For instance, at the last Congress, we held sessions on microarrays and biomolecular imaging. These fields are emerging technologies that face many of the same issues such as probe specificity, standardization of specimen preparation, etc. that were faced by ISAC members during the development of flow and image cytometry.

In the upcoming Congress we will highlight areas of science at the interface that we have termed "cytomics" -- cell-based analyses that integrate genomics and proteomics with the dynamic function of cells and tissues. We will debate the issue of stem cell research and we will have an array of outstanding presentations on the frontiers of science.

We have also combined our efforts with those of the Clinical Cytometry Society (CCS) who will host the clinical cytometry plenary session as well as other venues at the Congress.

To better serve your needs, we will:

• Increase the available student travel funds for the San Diego Congress in May 2002
• Explore ways to make child care available at the Congress so that you can take your family to sunny San Diego.
• Have a "Meet the Councilors" evening so that you can raise issues of concern with the councilors in your discipline area (biological, clinical or technical)

In response to the losses during this past year of our treasured colleagues Mack Fulwyler and Janis Giorgi, ISAC has also established two memorial awards:

• The Huang Foundation has generously donated $100,000 to establish the Janis Giorgi Scientist of the Year Award which will be awarded at each biennial congress to an outstanding junior scientist who has made seminal contributions to the field of cytometry/cytomics.
• The present and past presidents of ISAC have also established the Mack Fulwyler Travel Endowment Fund which will provide funding for our more senior society members to continue to participate and make valuable contributions to the Society Congresses.

I am deeply humbled by the outpouring and generosity of ISAC members.

Finally, ISAC's journal Cytometry is the window through which we as ISAC members communicate with each other and with the worldwide scientific community. The recent ISAC membership survey indicated that you place high value on both Cytometry and its more clinically oriented section Clinical Communications in Cytometry (CCC).

After much thought, Jan Visser has decided to step down from his position as Editor-in-Chief of Cytometry in order to pursue new opportunities in the area of stem cell biology in the private sector. We wish him well in his new endeavors. The impending change in leadership of the Journal has prompted us to develop a Cytometry Task Force to explore ways to further improve the quality of the journal.

We live in exciting and changing times. As we look forward, ISAC has wonderful opportunities to continue to make significant contributions to human health by embracing new technologies and sharing our knowledge on how to best utilize technology to answer pressing biological questions.

I feel grateful and privileged to serve you as President and I look forward to seeing you at ISAC XXI in San Diego in May 2002.

ISAC Leadership Conducts Strategic Planning Retreat

ISAC volunteer leadership and professional staff met 12-13 May in Chicago to develop the Society's three to five-year strategic plan.

Plexus Consulting Group LLC was retained by ISAC in February 2001 to assist in this process. During the 12 May session, the Plexus team presented quantitative and qualitative research results from a member survey and opinion-leader interviews, and led a brainstorming process.

This resulted in the identification of strategic issues, the development of a vision statement, and the creation of a new mission statement for ISAC.

The group then engaged in outlining the principles, or values, for the Society. The group identified eight principles to guide the volunteer leadership, professional staff and membership in achieving ISAC's new mission.

During the latter part of the 12 May session, participants identified three goals for general policy direction for ISAC:

• Changing the Society's profile
• Raising the awareness of the field
• Improving and enhancing member services

The first day concluded with the development of strategic objectives and specific strategic directions for each of these strategic goals.

The group developed 18 strategic objectives, most of which fall under the member services goal. The 13 May session was devoted to drafting tactics. Session participants were divided into four groups, which developed 60 action items. (The strategic objectives for the goal of improving member services were split between two groups.) The groups reconvened and reached agreement on the required game plan for the implementation of the strategic plan.

Four general activity areas were identified:

• Journal
• Web site
• Meeting
• Outreach

Activity coordinators were assigned.

The session concluded with the identification of possible structural changes and the outlining of next steps.

A detailed outcome of the retreat will be addressed in future issues of ISAC's E-News.

Mack Fulwyler

Mack J. Fulwyler, a pioneer of flow cytometry and sorting, and dear friend and colleague of many, many ISAC members succumbed on June 28, 2001 in Sarasota, Florida to a very rare but malignant form of cancer. He was born July 6, 1936, in Nampa, Idaho.

He received his doctorate degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 1967. As a graduate student he conceived of and built the first droplet flow sorter at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He inspired a team of scientists to apply this invention to cell sorting, a monumental contribution to the instrumentation available for basic and applied biomedical research.

This work spurred active commercial development -- continuing to this day -- of which Mack was one of the pioneers. He was credited with the founding of two companies.

As the field matured Mack returned to academia and later assumed the position of Director of the Laboratory for Cell Analysis at the University of California, San Francisco. He received the prestigious Von Humboldt award in 1976 and went to Europe as a Fulbright scholar in 1998-1999.

Mack also worked for several years on the encapsulation of islet cells. He retired "officially" in 1998 to a home he built in Florida, but never gave up his interest in new scientific ideas and useful gadgets.

He was pursuing a number of projects in collaboration with scientists around the world as well as starting a new research group as a professor at University of South Florida up to the time of his untimely and fulminating illness.

His friends remember him as a warm and generous mentor who shared his innovative ideas with others and stimulated them to render concepts into reality. But Mack was also a lover of nature, a fanatic and accomplished fisherman, a faithful friend and dedicated husband and father. It is Mack Fulwyler as a person whom we will miss the most.

He was awarded many patents for his inventions in flow cytometry and sorting. He was a charter member of ISAC, a councilor on the first ISAC council, and a member of the first ISAC Editorial Policy Committee. In 1994, he was the recipient of the ISAC Distinguished Service Award. We, the ISAC "family", extend our heartfelt condolences to his wife Carol and his three children, Connie, Richard, and James.

The ISAC leadership and membership have spontaneously demonstrated their acknowledgment of Mack Fulwyler's singular contributions and achievements by establishing a Memorial Award for promoting the participation of deserving scientists at the periodic ISAC meetings.

Memorial donations may be sent to the International Society of Analytical Cytology, Mack Fulwyler Endowment Fund, c/o ISAC, P.O. Box 71495, Chicago, IL 60694-1495 USA.

Contributed by L. Scott Cram and Donna Arndt-Jovin

Tribute to Janis Giorgi

It is appropriate that, in tribute to the influence of Janis Giorgi's contributions to flow cytometry, a new yearly award honoring an emerging investigator is to be her namesake.

I met Janis in Albuquerque in 1978 where she was de facto lab manager for Noel Warner, who had recently moved from Australia. Janis was the take-charge type, organizing, cajoling us to work together; she was mentor to everyone.

She was studying the cellular immune response to tumors in mice, an interest which she later exploited in her life's work on HIV. She lived in the Rio Grande Valley with her chickens, old yellow VW and jeweler husband.

In the years we were in Albuquerque, she divorced, moved closer to the lab and formed lifelong friendships with, among others, Jerome Zawadzki, Lewis Lanier and Mike Daley. She met her future partner and husband, also a scientist, Duane, in the last year we were in Albuquerque.

After Noel's lab dispersed in 1981, she went to Massachusetts General in Boston, to set up a clinical flow cytometry facility. Later, she enticed Jerome Zawadzki to join her. Together they explored the use of cytometry in a clinical setting while eating quite a few lobsters.

Boston didn't suit Janis' need for warmth and in 1984 she moved to LA, which seemed more fitting, given her sunny disposition. She set up a flow facility at UCLA with John Fahey. She hired and trained both Lance Hultin and Ingrid Schmid who remained with her throughout her career at UCLA.

Janis made seminal contributions to understanding the cellular immune response in HIV in the late 1980s, some of which led to the sophisticated immunophenotyping done today.

She helped countless students and investigators based on her belief in the power of flow cytometry to provide insights into clinical problems. She was a role model to a generation of female scientists who saw not only a competent scientist, but a warm and fallible human being.

She focused on standardization of flow measurements and in her role on several advisory committees brokered many disputes in the field. Flow cytometry is better off because of her efforts to make our data comparable, to educate others about flow uses and to insist on the highest quality.

She also devised a strategy to test and control for potential biohazards created by sorting. She made a lasting contribution in understanding HIV by recognizing that CD8+ T cells in HIV were abnormal, now recognized as significant in the pathogenesis.

Toward the end of her life, she made a great effort to keep both the people and her life's work supported at UCLA. Janis's greatest professional strength was her dogmatic persistence in pursuing a goal. Her greatest personal strength was her genuine warmth and compassion, which she used in great measure to spread the science of cytometry. In her memory, we should strive to teach others the beauty and the power of flow cytometry.

Contributed by Dorothy Lewis

3rd Samuel A. Latt/Motown Microarray Meeting

Genomics and Proteomics in Cancer

Detroit, Michigan  The 3rd Samuel A. Latt/Motown Microarray Meeting, Genomics and Proteomics in Cancer, held 1-4 May 2001, provided an excellent forum for networking among the presenters and the 180 attendees from eight countries, including China and Japan.

The meeting was cosponsored by ISAC and the Josephine Ford Cancer Center, Henry Ford Health System, and was chaired by Alexander Nakeff.

The first morning's highlights included an analysis of the potential of various platforms for proteomic analysis using 2-D gels (Michael Pisano, Genomic Solutions), liquid-protein mass mapping (David Lubman, University of Michigan) and protein "chips" (Mark Garner, Ciphergen Biosystems); the jury is still out but the latter two approaches show great promise.

This was followed by an exciting talk on how cDNA and tissue microarrays are clinically revolutionizing pathology labs through miniaturization and robotics (Olli-P Kallioniemi, NIH) and how new microarray-based approaches also permit the study of protein function (Gavin MacBeath, Harvard University).

The large data sets generated by these advances have created the burgeoning science of bioinformatics.

In the afternoon session, John Weinstein (NIH), Brian Haab (Van Andel Institute) and Michael Kane (Genomic Solutions) demonstrated how new data-mining software can be used to create molecular networks within target cells that explain how physiologic perturbations, including anticancer drugs, may actually work at the gene and protein level.

Betty Woo (Cellomics) took this one step further and showed how bioinformatics coupled to multi-bead assays can be applied at the physiologic level in living cells using flow-based fluorescence assays.

The second morning's highlights showed the power of microarrays in placing the previous phenotypic classification of solid tumors (sarcomas [Laurence Baker, University of Michigan], breast and brain [Oliver Boglar, Henry Ford Hospital], lung [Edward Gabrielson, Johns Hopkins Oncology Center] and the molecular continuum from benign to malignant breast cancer [Maria Worsham, Henry Ford Health System]) on a rational molecular basis that has the potential of ushering in individual patient-treatment schedules (Todd Golub, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard).

Two important points were made, namely:

1. The correct interpretation of microarray data is fraught with substantial pitfalls in the absence of rigorous controls (Edward Gabrielson).


2. "Custom" chips may be a thing of the past, to be replaced by a "human genome" chip comprising all of the known (approximately 33,000) human genes (Todd Golub).

The afternoon's highlights included a fascinating look at how microarrays have revolutionized the pharmacology of high-throughput target-oriented research (Lukas Amler, BMS), generated molecular signals for ovarian tumors (David Smith, Mayo Clinic), and even have significantly impacted molecular epidemiology of solid tumors (Ben Rybicki, Josephine Ford Cancer Center and Mark Hughes, Wayne State).

The final day was devoted to various microarray applications to anticancer drug discovery and development.

The highlights included a fascinating look inside the corporate decision-making and future projections of the next generation of anticancer designer drugs made by the second-leading anticancer drug-development company in the world (Karol Sikora, Pharmacia), and the major role that NCI is playing in linking drug sensitivity of designer drugs to their molecular targets through the NCI COMPARE paradigm (Holbeck).

Alexander Nakeff and Balanehru Subramanian (Drug Discovery and Development, Josephine Ford Cancer Center) turned the target-oriented approach on its head by first using the tumor cell as a "target" to obtain unique agents with in vivo activity before utilizing cDNA microarrays and 2-D gels as complementary methods to define molecular target pathways.

This session ended with excellent presentations highlighting the utility of mRNA profiling in testing anticancer drug efficacy (Gerrit Los, University of California-San Diego Cancer Center), and the practical application of 3-D structural genomics in drug design with the advent of rapid and reproducible methods to produce crystals (Sean Buchanan, Structural Genomix).

Excellent presentations also highlighted the identification of drug targets by CGH arrays (Joe Gray, University of California San Francisco) and intermediates by cDNA microarrays (Michael Tainsky, Karmanos Cancer Institute).

Of interest to ISAC members were discussions that took place throughout the course of the meeting on cytometric applications with significant potential impact on future developments in genomics/proteomics that included:

• High-speed cell sorting, single cell deposition and marker quantitation,


• Providing a rationale for a more efficacious choice of fluorescent probes and readouts including methodologies for their validation,


• Quantitative cellular approaches to address tumor heterogeneity, and


• Image-analysis approaches to laser microdissected cells from tumor biopsies.

It was clear from this meeting that information from arrays eventually must be quantitated at the single tumor-cell level, a goal in which ISAC can play a major role in realizing.

The banquet included the premier unveiling of the Samuel A. Latt plaque (with a picture and biography of Latt) by ISAC President Lisa Staiano-Coico. This plaque will be a permanent part of Latt meetings.

The plaque displays shields acknowledging the previous two conferences, the first in Toronto, Canada, in 1997, and the second in Hamilton Island, Australia, in 1999.

In summary, the 3rd Samuel A. Latt/Motown Microarray Meeting was an outstanding success at the scientific, financial and social levels.

The meeting highlights the opportunity for ISAC to enter the genomics/proteomics arena as a player by bringing its core expertise to bear on advances in this important and rapidly expanding area of research and development.

ISAC leadership has expressed thanks to the following for their contributions to the success of the Samuel A. Latt meeting:

• Steve Dunlop and J. Paul Robinson of Purdue for their assistance with the meeting Web site
• The 37 industrial sponsors for their financial support
• Carole Anne Nakeff
• Loretta Lisow
• Dr. B. Subramanian and members of the Drug Discovery and Development Program, JFCC for their assistance with registration
• Alexander Nakeff of the Josephine Ford Cancer Center

ISAC Co-sponsors Public Workshop on Human Cell Sorting

by David Coder
ISAC Biosafety Surveillance Committee
E-mail: dcoder1@qwest.net
and
Michele Keane-Moore
CBER/FDA
E-mail: keane-moore@cber.fda.gov

Given the potential for a range of therapeutic procedures involving flow-sorted human cells, the U.S. Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration realized that there were neither standards nor guidelines for the manipulation of human cells during cell sorting.

Responding to a request from CBER, ISAC cosponsored a public workshop to solicit public comment regarding human cell sorting. Information on the meeting is available at http://www.fda.gov/cber/meetings/flocyt042001.htm.

The workshop described the current experience of laboratories and clinics involved in planning such procedures, the instrument manufactures of cell sorters, and gathered summaries of governmental regulatory issues that may affect future work in clinical cell sorting.

Approximately 95 people attended the one-day meeting on National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Md., on 20 April 2001.

Following a welcome by Joyce Frye, deputy director Div. Cell and Gene Therapy (FDA), and an introduction by David Coder, chair of the ISAC Biosafety Surveillance Committee, the following speakers provided brief presentations on basic issues:

S. Cram (NFCR, Los Alamos National Laboratory) Overview of Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting and its Biological Applications

B. Sausville (FDA)
Biologics: Sterilization and Cleaning

C. Nelson OHIP/DSMA (CDRH)
Good Manufacturing Practices

The following manufacturers provided overviews of their instruments and topics related to safe cell sorting:

T. Christian (Becton Dickinson)
M. Ottenberg (Cytomation)
G. van den Engh (Cytopeia)

The early experiences of individual users in human-cell sorting was presented by:

F. van Rhee (University of Arkansas Medical Center)
F. Mandy (Health Canada)
E. Read (NIH Clinical Center)
A. Gee (Baylor College of Medicine, TMC)
T. Wagner, L. Holmes (Greenville Hospital)
A. Donnenberg (University of Pittsburgh Med. Center)
J. Houston (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital)

The meeting ended with a roundtable discussion by members of the Working Group that will provide recommendations on guidelines to CBER/FDA. The members include:

D. Coder (ISAC)
L. Lamb (University of South Carolina)
I. Schmid (UCLA)
M. Keane-Moore (CBER/FDA)
M. Shapiro (FDA)
S. Perfetto (NIH)
L. Jane Clarke (NIH)
F. Mandy (Health Canada)
G. Howes (Beckman Coulter)
T. Christian (Becton Dickinson Biosciences)
M. Ottenburg (Cytomation)
G. van den Engh (Cyotpeia)

The Working Group plans to produce a draft of the guidelines by fall 2001. This should appear on the CBER/FDA Web site at http://www.fda.gov/cber/meetings/flocyt042001.htm. Comments from the flow cytometry community are welcome.

Please send responses to David Coder at dcoder1@qwest.net or Michele Keane-Moore at keane-moore@cber.fda.gov. keane-moore@cber.fda.gov

Qualification in Cytometry offered by ASCP Board of Registry

In cooperation with the International Society for Analytical Cytology, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists Board of Registry is now offering Qualification in Cytometry to those applicants with a broad experience in cytometry including immunophenotyping, DNA ploidy, stem cell analysis, and related areas.

Qualification consists of submitting four immunophenotyping cytometry analyses, in addition to two cytometry analyses of other applications such as DNA ploidy, fetal hemoglobin, stem cell, crossmatch, PNH, etc.

For more information about the Qualification in Cytometry or to receive an application, contact the ASCP Board of Registry.

Mail your request to:
ASCP Board of Registry
P. O. Box 12277
Chicago, IL 60612-0277

Call: (800) 621-4142, press 1 ext. 1345
In Illinois (312) 738-1336 ext. 1345
Fax a request to (312) 738-5808.
Email: bor@ascp.org

Visit the Board of Registry at http://www.ascp.org/bor for more information.

Contributed by Anne Hurley, chairperson ISAC Regulatory Affairs Committee

ISAC Financial Statements Get Clean Bill of Health

by Maria Pallavicini
E-mail: pallavicini@cc.ucsf.edu

Annual Audit

In April 2001, Mann, Weitz & Associates completed the annual audit of ISAC finances. The result was a clean bill of health for the Society's financial statements.

At the end of 2000, the Society had net assets of $1,174,384, including $311,324 in current investments and $631,623 in long-term investments. In 2000, the Society's total operating revenues, gains and other support was $1,329,533. Total operating expenses in 2000 were $1,136,361.

Thus, the Society's net income from operations was $193,172. These results, plus a net increase in restricted funds from contributions of $71,628, produced an overall increase in net assets of the Society during 2000 of $264,800. Thanks to the many people who worked so hard to bring about this positive for the year.

2001 Budget

The Council approved a budget for 2001 including operating revenue of $526,808, operating expense of $534,216, for a budgeted net loss of $7,408.

As of the end of May 2001, ISAC had net assets of $1,270,660. Total operating revenue year-to-date as of the end of May was $260,321, and operating expenses were $204,981. At the end of May, net assets year-to-date from operations for 2001 were $55,340.

This figure is $62,748 better than budget for the year, but this is largely a result of the timing of recognition of revenues and expenses during the year. In addition, the Society posted $10,519 in gains on its investments as of the end of May. (In 2000, as a result of the volatile stock market in the last half of last year, ISAC experienced a $13,000 loss in the value of its investments).

Recent Developments

Two recent developments have positive financial implications for the Society. Following the XX Congress, the Huang Foundation pledged a donation of $100,000 over five years to support the new investigator program at the next five congresses.

In addition to allowing increased funding to support student travel to the congresses, this donation also provides for the establishment of a new award in memory of the late Dr. Janis Giorgi in recognition of her seminal contributions to the field of clinical immunology. ISAC would like to extend its gratitude to Ernest Huang, Ph.D., president of the Huang Foundation, for his generous donation.

ISAC was awarded $10,000 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in support of the upcoming congress. This award was the second part of the renewal grant application. The funds will be used for partial support of speakers in the area of novel gene expression methodologies and students.

Finally, as you will read elsewhere in this newsletter, the recent strategic planning retreat identified a number of new initiatives to be undertaken by ISAC and its leadership to support the emerging new vision of the organization.

Some of these new initiatives will require some expenditures unplanned for this fiscal year. The Finance Committee will be working closely with the Council to assure that ISAC's resources are invested wisely and prudently to advance the Society.

ISAC in an evolving world of "-omics"

by Paul J. Smith, Chair
ISAC Scientific Advisory Committee
E-mail: smithpj2Acf.au.uk

ISAC is entering an exciting phase of development and the recent strategic planning meeting in Chicago has identified several opportunities to enhance the profile of our discipline.

These days, bioscience, at its best, is a multidisciplinary activity. This is particularly true in attempts to exploit genome information where the required mix of skills and technologies demand team efforts. Indeed the demand is both pragmatic and imposed by funding agencies.

The science and technology of cytometry have important roles in such collaborative activities. However, this changing environment implies survival of the fittest.

It is probably worthwhile to reflect upon this new world inhabited by the T. rex of bioscience -- "functional genomics" -- and its rapidly evolving subspecies.

Functional genomics relates to the use of high-throughput analysis of the function of hundreds or thousands of genes at once. It encompasses several other "-omics," and the development of software tools to handle and interpret the data tsunami it generates (i.e. bioinformatics). The selective pressures of scientific curiosity, biomedical need and commercial gain combine in this new world to ensure rapid development.

For example, the goal of structural genomics is to determine the structure of most of the proteins encoded by the genome and provide clues to function or dysfunction in disease, and provide routes to rational drug design.

Transcriptomics examines the "transcriptome" -- the full complement of mRNA transcripts present in a cell at any one time with implications for understanding the changes in gene expression in physiological and pathological processes.

The increasing interest in "proteomics" revolves around the concept of the total set of protein -- the "proteome" -- produced by a cell, providing an insight into differential expression and complex interactions.

The "-omics" taxonomy has increased even further with attempts to describe the entire complement of small molecules within a cell -- the "metabolome" and how it changes with time.

As with all highly evolved beasts, they become toolmakers; witness the parallel surge in the development of the technologies within each "-omics" field.

The analysis of the cell stands at a pivotal position within the spectrum of activity in the new world of "-omics." It is the cell that is capable of integrating internal and environmental signals into molecular responses. It is the cell that can generate a behavioral phenotype that becomes the recognizable descriptor of the outcome of a plethora of pathways.

In essence, biological processes are determined by the genome, revealed by the transcriptome, operate through the proteome but are enacted by the cell.

This nonreducible unit of integration -- the "cytome" -- also becomes the ultimate unit within which the other "-omics" must operate eventually.

The reason is simple -- not all cells do the same things at the same times for the same reasons. The cytome becomes a conceptual unit for rational study of the "-omics" in both homogeneous and nonhomogeneous systems.

Measurements at the level of the cytome can be used to inform mathematical descriptions of the changes in complex biological systems. The cytome concept will start to drive the demand for existing and the quest for new single-cell analysis technologies.

We will increasingly realize our ability to evolve cytome behavior into higher-order responses including those at tissue, organism and population levels. This offers the possibility of informed prediction from the culture dish to the clinic.

This newly described field of cytomics encompasses disciplines that clearly resonate with ISAC and its members. ISAC intends to make a leading contribution in evolving cytomics.

On the horizon, we plan to increase the meetings that re-profile the field of cytomics and preliminary planning is underway for a major UK-based conference in May 2003 at a venue that matches the significant ambitions of ISAC for thriving in this new world.

The Scientific Advisory Committee will be playing its role in fulfilling those ambitions.

XXI Congress Keynote & Robert Hooke Lecturer Slated

Harry Crissman
President Elect
E-mail: hacrissman@lanl.gov

Plan to attend the ISAC International Congress XXI to be held at the Town and Country Resort & Convention Center in San Diego, Calif., U.S.A., 4-9 May 2002.

The Town and Country provides the capabilities and space to accommodate the large number of scientific activities and presentations required for an ISAC Congress.

In addition, San Diego is one of the most attractive cities in southern California, providing beautiful surroundings and beaches, as well as attractions including Sea World and the famous San Diego Zoo. The Congress has been structured to provide free time on several afternoons to encourage additional informal interactions among the attendees.

The scientific program will be organized along three themes:

• Biological sciences


• Clinical sciences


• Cytometric technology

Daily plenary and parallel sessions are planned. Fifteen tutorials will be offered with three parallel sessions. Individuals may choose to attend a maximum of five tutorials throughout the day on Saturday, 4 May. The workshops will be scheduled in the evenings so as to provide some free time in the afternoons.

XXI Congress highlights include:

• Keynote Address
  Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty will open the Congress on Sunday, 5 May with the presentation Visualization of Cell-Mediated Immunity. Doherty received the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1996 for studies explaining the mechanism of T-cell recognition and cell-mediated immunity.


• Robert Hooke Distinguished Lecture
  The Hooke Lecture, The Ethics of Human Stem Cell Research, precedes the Thursday awards ceremony and banquet, and will be presented by Lord Robert Winston. Lord Winston is chief of service for reproductive medicine at Hammersmith Hospital in London and professor of fertility studies at Imperial College School of Medicine.


• Mini-Symposium: Apoptosis and Molecular Therapeutics
  This symposium will highlight advanced concepts and scientific revelations in the field of apoptosis.
  
  The presenters at this symposium include widely recognized scientists in the field — Dr. John C. Reed and Professors Douglas R. Green, Junying Yuan and Gerald Evan.


• Theoretical Cytomics and Applied Cytomics
  ISAC XXI will also feature two new special sessions devoted to cytomics on Monday, 6 May. The term "cytomics" emerged from discussions at the ISAC Strategic Planning Session held in Chicago in May 2001.
  
  See article, "ISAC in an evolving world of '-omics' " in this issue of E-News.

The terminology implies an obvious extension from genomics to proteomics to cytomics. More detailed information on these new sessions will be provided in the coming months.

All interested students, postdoctoral fellows and investigators working in the field of cell function are welcome to submit abstracts and to participate in the cytomics and other sessions at ISAC XXI. Join us for what promises to be an exciting and memorable scientific meeting in San Diego next May.