ISAC E-News September 2006
ISAC Management and Leadership News
Our contract with the Sherwood Group in Northbrook, Ill., has been extended until 1 October 2006.
Maria Pallavicini has been leading a review committee to select a management organization. FASEB has been selected as the new management organization. More details will be provided as the transition takes place.
Search for a new editor of Cytometry Part A. Interested applicants should contact Fred Waldman, Chair of the Scientific Communications Committee, by e-mail at waldman@cc.ucsf.edu or by phone at 415-476-3821. The deadline for applications is 15 September 2006. An add for this position is posted on the ISAC Web site (www.isac-net.org).
New committee chairs and membership lists are being announced see below for details.
A proposed constitutional amendment, see note below from Lori Krueger.
A Corporate Challenge by Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz
The first winner of the new Mack Fulwyler Award for Innovation Excellence, Dr. Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz, announced that he was donating his award of $2,500 to the Membership Services Committee of ISAC for the benefit of students and young members. He issued a challenge to companies to match his donation with the goal of increasing the opportunities for young scientists who are members of ISAC. Over the years, ISAC has struggled to recognize the importance of our younger scientists culminating in the lowest number of students attending our meetings ever -- prior to the XXIII ISAC Congress. The June 2006 ISAC meeting in Quebec City saw 117 student members in attendance. This is a significant increase in our goal to have 10 percent of members as students. With the current membership at around 1,650, we are striving for another 50 students.
To date, Beckman-Coulter and Becton-Dickinson have both generously provided $2,500 in matching support. Thus, we now have an additional $7,500. toward student support programs. We encourage all companies to consider supporting Dr. Darzynkiewicz’s challenge program. Dr. Darzynkiewicz is a past president of ISAC and one of our most active members.
Associated Society News
In addition to including news from our Associated Societies, we have decided to highlight one organization in each issue of ISAC E-News starting with the Italian Society of Cytometry.
The Italian Society of Cytometry, GIC, A Piece of History of Cytometry in Italy by Marco Danova, GIC President:
The Italian Society of Cytometry was founded in Rome in1986 by a group of scientists involved in various field of cytometry. Most of them were interested in flow cytometry (at that time emerging as new technology in biology and medicine) and a few in methodological and technological developments of fluorescence microscopy and microspectrofluorometry. The original founding name of the Society was Gruppo Italiano di Citometria whose acronym is maintained in the evolved name of the actual GIC Society. To date there are more than 805 members. Among its many activities the GIC is involved in educational programs, scientific meeting organization, promotion of quality control programs and drafting/validation of guidelines, providing information for people who actively work in the field of basic and applied cytometry. Other activities of the GIC are performed through workgroups and committees, addressed to the following principal objectives:
- The creation and implementation of guidelines concerning the major aspects of the various cytometric applications.
- The organization of a comprehensive educational program, through the biannual conference, scientific theme-addressed conferences, inter-regional courses and especially through the affiliated permanent School of Cytometry; all these activities are conducted within the framework of the Continuous Medical Education (CME) approach planned by the Italian Ministry of Health.
- The analysis and promotion of managerial quality in the discipline.
In October 2005 in San Benedetto del Tronto, we had a very successful annual national meeting (XXII) with around 300 attendees and 200 scientific contributions covering both basic and clinical application of cytometry (thanks to ISAC these abstracts were published in Cytometry 69A, 5, May 2006). For the end of September 2006 we have organized in Urbino the XXIII educational event of the "National School of Cytometry" structured in a series of both practical and theoretical (PC-based) courses. This activity is organized regularly every two years and we plan to have around 200 "students". These will spread to various scientific fields from fluorescence microscopy up to clinical cytometry including also microbiology and plant biology; some basic and others advanced. The event will be closed by a Plenary Conference dedicated to some emerging topics of cytometry covered by national and international experts.
As far as the future is concerned, another local meeting (XXIII) is scheduled at the end of November beside the National Cancer Institute of Naples. It will be mainly addressed to the clinical application of Cytometry in clinical oncology. The Society is already engaged in the preparation of the next annual National Meeting that will be the principal of various celebration activities related to the XXV years after its foundation and that will take place in Rome in October 2007.
ISAC Student Profile
As another way to recognize and highlight the work of ISAC students we are looking for nominations of those who should be so recognized in future issues of ISAC E-News. Our first student profile is from Younes Leysi-Derilou, winner of the Best Poster Award at the ISAC XXIII Congress, 20-24 May 2006 Quebec City, Canada. Younes is a Ph.D. student in the chemical engineering department, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada. (younes.leysi@gmail.com)
I am doing my Ph.D. in the Department of Hem-Qubec Inc. on platelet production, under supervision of Professor Alain Garnier and co-supervisors Professors Nicolas Pineault and Carl Duchesne. I started my work in January 2005. The main goals of my project are optimization and modeling of platelet production from umbilical cord blood CD34+ cells. For the purpose of optimization, we are investigating the effects of several cytokines, chemokines and hormones by using systematic statistical designs. A part of the modeling works was presented as a poster in the ISAC congress (P69). There we simulated the proliferation, differentiation and death rates of four stem cell populations from master hematopoietic stem cells (CD34+; with >65 percent purity) toward platelet production through series of differentiation, using experimental data obtained from the flow cytometry.
This model is easily applicable for any other stem cell modeling purposes. We also did sensitivity analysis to show the parameter estimability. By working with other experimental data sets (not presented in the poster), we have shown that the model error is less than the experimental errors whether introduced by instruments like FACS or an operator.
I am working on the practical techniques to address those predicted rates and see that how precisely cell fates can be modeled. These techniques include using CFSE fluorescent dye and live cell imaging. Further details of this work will be published in the near future.
I did my B.Sc. in chemical engineering-food industry at University of Tehran (Tehran, Iran) and M.Sc. in biochemical engineering at Tarbiat Modarres University (Tehran, Iran). I have been working on experimental design using the Taguchi method, which is also called robust design, from 1998 as a researcher and consultant (http://nutek-us.com/wp-use.html) for different chemical and biochemical research centers.
After getting a Ph.D., I will do a short postdoctoral research in one of the American or Canadian universities and then start working on some ideas I have on the cancer cells since it afflicts so many people in the world.
ISAC Committee Chair Announcements
ISAC Membership Services Committee Report
by Laura Teodore teodori@casaccia.enea.it and Zofia Maciorowsky zofia.maciorowski@curie.net
The Membership Service Committee (MSC) is pleased to report on the Congress award presentations and the winners of the ISAC awards assigned during Congress in Quebec City. Our young members are essential to ISAC’s future, and we want to emphasize their importance and encourage their implication as members in ISAC. We are extremely grateful to the companies who generously gave their support for these awards.
PAE and ESA Awards: Five finalists each for the President’s Award for Excellence (PAE) and the Exceptional Student Award (ESA) were chosen, from a total of 33 applicants, to present their work orally in a special student session. Despite the short amount of time for each presentation and constant reminders from the MSC chairs to keep to their allotted time, all of the young scientists gave excellent presentations, and the session was very well attended and much appreciated by the congress attendees.
The PAE finalists were:
- Xiao Li, the Netherlands
- Bulent Bayraktar, United States
- Enrico Lugli, Italy
- Laura Adang, United States
- Jennifer Lemon, Canada
The ESA finalists were:
- Bartlomej Rajwa, United States
- Uriel Trahtemberg, Israel
- Sundararajan Jayaraman, United States
- Jan Pruszak, United States
- Zachary Pincus, United States
We would like to thank our illustrious judging committee, Atwar Krishan, Patrice Petit, Howard Shapiro, Nicolas Terry and Guenter Valet, who had the difficult job of choosing the best of these excellent presentations.
The PAE winner was Zachary Pincus of Stanford University for his work on “A General Technique for Segmentation of Individual Cells in Light Micrographs”
The ESA winner was Jennifer Lemon of McMaster University for her work on “A Complex Dietary Supplement Dramatically Reduces Radiation-induced Chromosome Aberrations, 8-OHDG levels and aH2AX Foci in Mice Expressing Elevated Free Radical Processes.“
Best poster awards:
The 43 posters submitted for the Best Poster award were judged by a committee that included Dario Coletti, Patrice Petit , Nicolas Terry, Zofia Maciorowski, LauraTeodori and David Coder. Ten winners were chosen and generously awarded $200 each by Becton Dickinson:
- Marise Delaporte, University of Prince Edward Island
- Amir Iarampour Feridani Lund University, Sweden
- Jingli Zhang Hort Research, New Zealand
- Aileen Congreve, University of Durham, UK
- Nicole Wittenbrik, Humboldt University, Germany
- Israel Biran, Molecular Cytomics, Boston USA
- Zsuzsanna Palyi-Krekk, University of Debrecen, Hungary
- Karel Soucek, Biophysics Academy of Scinece, Czech Republic
- Ping Zhang, Shanghai Second Medical University, China
- Leysi-Derilou Younes, Laval University, Quebec, Canada
In addition, the best of these 10 poster winners was chosen and awarded “Current Protocols in Cytometry,” a necessity in any cytometry laboratory, generously donated by Wiley Publishers. The winner of this Outstanding Poster Award winner was Leysi-Derilou Younes, Laval University Québec
A total of $34,000 travel money to attend the congress was awarded to 59 student applicants, 29 from North America and 30 from other countries.
Biosafety Committee
Ingrid Schmid, Chair, Schmid@mednet.ucla.edu
As an initiative from our new president, Paul Robinson, the Biosafety Committee was re-grouped. Four new members, Gary Durak, Bill Eades, Chris Groves, and Deborah Shapira from Australia have joined Claude Lambert from France and Steven Perfetto from the Vaccine Research Center at the NIH, each providing a different perspective and unique expertise. The first task for the newly appointed members is to provide comments and suggestions on the draft version of the new ISAC Biosafety Standard. An earlier version of this document has been posted on the ISAC Web site to invite comments from the ISAC membership since May of 2006 in preparation for the Biosafety Workshop held at the ISAC Congress in Quebec City. Responses received from the cytometry community and during the congress were considered and incorporated as appropriate. The resulting revised document was sent to ISAC Council for review in June of 2006. Since then, based on comments from Council members and discussions, a new draft version of the ISAC Biosafety Standard is being generated for re-review by Council. ISAC members are invited to direct any questions about safety concerns to Biosafety Committee members or Chair Ingrid Schmid.
ISAC Scholars Program
The ISAC Scholars program is generously supported by GlaxoSmithKline, Invitrogen, Pfizer and Bristol-Meyers Squibb. This year’s winners are:
- Dario Coletti, Researcher, Italy
- Tytus Bernas, Postdoc, Poland
- Dominik Lenz, Postdoc United States
- Lory Yang, Postdoc United States
- Ryan Brinkman, Assistant Professor, Canada
- Claudio Panzarella, Student, Italy
- Reiner Schulte, Student, Germany
- Laura Adang, Student, United States
The ISAC Scholars program is generously supported by GlaxoSmithKline, Invitrogen, Pfizer and Bristol-Meyers Squibb.
And lastly, and from the bottom of our hearts, we would like to thank Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz for the extremely generous donation of his $2,500 Fulwyler Award prize to the Membership Services Committee to be used to develop and encourage student activities. Darzynkiewicz threw out a challenge to the cytometry companies to match his donation, a challenge that has already been met by Beckman Coulter and Becton Dickinson, companies that have strongly supported ISAC throughout the years. Our grateful thanks to all of you! We have a plethora of ideas for the development of student activities in ISAC, and have appointed a student subcommittee of the Membership Services Committee to brainstorm and put into action new plans. We will do our best to see that these donations are put to the best possible use.
Education Task Force Update
by Lori Krueger, Lori_Krueger@bd.com
ISAC Council unanimously passed a motion last month to change ISAC’s Constitution and Bylaws to allow for the creation of a new Education Standing Committee. Currently, there are five (5) standing committees including the Nominating, Membership Services, Finance, Scientific Advisory and Scientific Communications committees. Elevating the Education Task Force to standing committee status reflects Council’s renewed commitment to making education-related issues an enduring priority. Until the membership’s final ratification on the Bylaws amendment, the current Education Task Force has been busy establishing education subcommittees to address issues related to:
- The Appropriate Use of Background Controls
- Education Needs in Resource Limited Regions
- Education Needs Related to Core Managers
- Education Needs Related to Imaging Analysis
Some of these subcommittees are well underway while others are still in their formative stages. It is not too late to volunteer your expertise and time to participate on one of these subcommittees! Members who have accepted the president’s invitation to serve include Lori Krueger (Clinical Councilor, Chair), Awtar Krishan, Paul Wallace, and Derek Davies. Please contact ISAC directly if you would like to participate!
Upcoming Meetings/Courses
Advanced Training Course, Vienna, Austria
by Nicole Borth nicole.borth@boku.ac.at
Our Advanced Training Course on Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting for Biotechnology will be held for the third time in beautiful Vienna in Austria on 11-15 September 2006. Our course is specifically designed for people interested in biotechnological applications including establishment and sorting of cell lines for biotechnology. For additional information please contact me at nicole.borth@boku.ac.at or visit our
Home page at http://www.boku.ac.at/iam/AdvTraining.htm.
Royal Microscopical Society's Course on Flow Cytometry
by Michael G. Ormerod m.g.ormerod@btinternet.com
The Royal Microscopical Society's Course on Flow Cytometry will be held on 11-15 September 2006 in York, UK. Full details of the course can be found at www.rms.org.uk/event_flow.shtml.
International Flow Cytometry Symposium in Sao Paulo, Brazil
by Esper Kallás and Denise Rodrigues kallas.dmed@epm.br
We will have in Sao Paulo the “I Simpósio Internacional de Citometria de Fluxo”, to discuss interesting issues of this fascinating tool. Mario Roederer and Nicole Baumgarth will be here, and the venue will take place on 14-15 September 2006. Further information is available at www.simposiodecitometria.com.br
Probing the Cancer cell: New Frontiers in Imaging and Cytometry
by Derek Davies derek.davies@cancer.org.uk
The Cell Biology, Cytometry and Light Microscopy committees of the Royal Microscopical Society have combined to put together a two day meeting that will take place at the Royal Marsden Conference Centre in Fulham Road, London on 18-19 September 2006. Booking details and registration (at a very reasonable rate!) can be found at http://www.rms.org.uk/event_probingcancer.shtml.
UC Irvine Flow Course
by Frank Zaldivar
The General Clinical Research Center at UC Irvine invites you to join us as we host FloCyte Associates, Inc. this month to offer courses in Basic Flow Cytometry, Multiparameter Flow and Compensation, and a brand new course on Intracellular Flow at our Irvine, California Campus, 19-22 September. Registration and information are available at http://www.flocyte.com/ click on training for more details and the application. Please register your interest as soon as possible, to ensure participation. Hope to see you in Irvine. Dr. Frank Zaldivar is director, Pediatric Cytokine and Growth Factor Laboratory and GCRC Laboratory Services.
New England Cytometry Users Group (NECyto) Meeting
by Richard F. Konz, Jr. Richard.Konz@umassmed.edu
The fall meeting of NECyto (formerly the Boston Users Group for Cytometry) will take place on 20 September from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. at the New Research Building at Harvard Medical School http://www.theconfcenter.hms.harvard.edu/. The fall meeting is titled “Stem Cells and Cytometry: Current Concepts and Future Directions.” For additional information contact Rich at Richard.Konz@umassmed.edu. Also take note of their fantastic Web site: http://www.bostoncytometry.org
Great Lakes International Imaging and Fow Cytometry Association Meeting (GLIIFCA)
by Tim Bushnell Timothy_Bushnell@URMC.Rochester.edu
The 15th annual meeting of GLIIFCA will be held 29 September– 1 October in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Registration and meeting information is available at http://www.gliifca.org/gliifca-registration.html There will be a Friday night reception and an Industrial Science Symposium. Saturday night's banquet features the theme of “Superheroes of Flow.” There is a pre-conference Flow Managers Workshop, and on Saturday, luncheon roundtables.
Chesapeake Cytometry Consortium
By Mehrnoosh Abshari absharim@niaid.nih.gov
The annual fall meeting will be held on Friday 27 October 2006 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the John's Hopkins University, Montgomery County Campus. Please, check our Web site at www.ccc-flow.org for detailed information on the program and registration. This year we are also pleased to host a pre-meeting flow cytometry course, presented by the FloCyte Regional Training Program, offering the Multiparametric Flow and Compensation course on Thursday 26 October 2006 at JHU Montgomery campus. This is an excellent opportunity to increase your knowledge of Flow Cytometry. For more information on the course please contact Susan DeMaggio at FloCyte@FloCyte.com.
Basic Training in Flow Cytometry and the Multiparameter Flow and Compensation
by P. Jan Hendrikx
I am pleased to announce that we are hosting a basic training course and a multiparameter flow and compensation course at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York (Upper East Side of Manhattan, easy to reach by bus and Subway) on 31 October -2 November. Please register early. Teachers are Jennifer Wilshire of TreeStar, Inc. and Maris Handley of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Please contact Sue DeMaggio at FloCyte@FloCyte.com or go to www.FloCyte.com for more information.
UK Core Managers Workshop
by Derek Davies derek.davies@cancer.org.uk
The first UK Core Managers Workshop will be held at the Technology Facility, University of York, UK on 1 November 2006. Topics under discussion will include biosafety, education in cytometry, cost recovery, measurement of laboratory output, data presentation and standardization. This meeting will be sponsored by Dako and organized by Derek Davies, Peter O'Toole and Alison Bell. Initial enquiries should be addressed to derek.davies@cancer.org.uk.
Royal Microscopical Society Workshop
by Derek Davies derek.davies@cancer.org.uk
The Royal Microscopical Society is also organizing a one-day workshop titled "Flow Cytometry in the Study of Cell Proliferation and Death," which will be held at Cancer Research UK, London on 2 November 2006. Details and booking form are at: http://www.rms.org.uk/event_flowcyto06.shtml.
New Applications for Flow Cytometry
by Margaret Bradley m.bradley@eurosciconcororate.com
A one-day meeting on 10 November in London, England. The meeting will be limited to 90 attendees. Adequate time for discussion and networking will be provided. For more information go to here.
University of Rochester Flow Cytometry Course
by Timothy Bushnell
FloCyte Associates will be holding a basic (two-day) and advanced (one-day) course, tentatively scheduled here at the University of Rochester 14-16 November. Details can be found at http://www.flocyte.com/ and click on Training or contact Sue DeMaggio at FloCyte@FloCyte.com. Apply early!
Dutch Cytometry Society Annual Meeting
by Willem Corver W.E.Corver@lumc.nl
The founding and first annual meeting of the Dutch Cytometry Society (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Cytometrie: http://www.cytometrie.nl/ ) will be held on 24 November 2006, in the "Nieuwe Buitensocieteit" in Zwolle, The Netherlands. Excellent speakers, known to the international cytometry society, have been invited for this meeting, amongst Hans Tanke, Cees Cornelisse and Leon Terstappen.