A quick jaunt up the tracks to Newcastle was well worth it for an excellent meeting on the practicalities of flow cytometry hosted by Ian Dimmick and Becky Stewart of Newcastle University. In a unique blend of commercial and research talks a number of different applications and tools were presented.
The morning began with talks about cytokines secretion capture systems (Miltenyi) and their applications to the study of IFNg secretion from NK cells in Cowdens Disease (Ian Dimmick). We also had a presentation on the cell permeable DNA dyes DRAQ5 and CyTrack Orange (Biostatus) and their applications in studying the cell cycle in live cells and ensuring we look at nucleated cells in peripheral blood samples without having to Lysenko RBCs. Allied with that Prof Paul Smith from Cardiff presented fascinating data on the use of a compound called AQ4N which is activated in hypoxic conditions (when it's converted to AQ4) such as within the microenvironment of tumours where a number of anti-cancer drugs are incapable of eliciting their effect.
On a diversion from mammalian cells we had a presentation on the applications of FCM in the study of plant genome size (Ilia Leitch, Kew). It appears the size of a plant genome may regulate a number of factors such as life cycle: weeds which grow quickly have small genomes while obligate perennials are slower growing and have large genomes. Plants with large genomes are generally not found in areas of extreme ecological stresses. And onions have 5 times as much DNA as we do! Maybe they are more intelligent!?
The post coffee session kicked off with BD's Flex bead assays and their use in the investigation of immunity amongst professional footballers. This was followed by presentation of the fixed alignment cytometer C6 from Accuri (Kate Easten) and it's use in studying calcium fluxes in research (Blanco Fernande, Dublin). A very powerful piece of equipment and so easy to operate. Definitely one for the wish list I think!
The afternoon was dedicated to multicolour flow and data analysis. Becky gave an excellent overview of compensation and we heard a great presentation on the use of 11 colour flow analysis in studying clinical cardiology.
The analysis of multicolour flow data can be very complicated and a number of approaches are available to analyse this type of data. Trevor Ray of Caltag presented a commercial solution in the form of Infinicyt, while Karen Fiser of Newcastle Uni presented a more 'home made' solution based on hierarchial clustering of data.
I missed the last couple of talks as I had to catch my train (!) but all-in-all a great day of flow information and a number of interesting applications were discussed in an inspiring environment.
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