ISAC E-News -- June, 2007

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ISAC Management and Leadership News

• ISAC Presidents Report
• Executive Directors Report

2008 ISAC Congress Update

ISAC Committee News

• Cytometry Editor's Report
• Education COMMITTEE
• ISAC Education (Flow Issues) Sub-Committee
• Membership Services Committee
• Core Managers Task Force

Affiliated Society News

• Czech Society for Analytical Cytology
• Update on New affiliates

Upcoming Meetings/Conferences/User Groups/Courses

Meeting Reports

• flowcytometryUK
• Flow Informatics and Computational Cytometry Society (FICCS)
• Pharma-Finance 2007

ISAC Management and Leadership News

ISAC President's Report

My fellow ISAC members:

I write this report having survived to the half way point of my presidency. It is one year ago that I was privileged to lead your Society. It has been really a wonderful opportunity to serve this great Society. ISAC has a track record that is envious when it comes to technology development.

Perhaps one of the most exciting things to happen this year was the initiation of the flow cytometer into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering's Invention Hall of Fame. I encourage you to visit the website at http://www.aimbe.org/content/index.php?pid=127 where this is documented. The list of inventions is not large. It is an exclusive list of the most important inventions to impact human health and welfare. ISAC members are to be congratulated for your long and enduring efforts in developing and expanding a technology invented by an engineer, recognized and expanded by a geneticist, and enveloped by scientists from every possible persuasion from physicists to plant pathologists. Together with 4 other ISAC members, all Fellows of AIMBE, I was excited to be present in Washington earlier this year when the announcement was made. Cytometry is highly recognized as a technology of great importance.

The ISAC biosafety guidelines are now available for all on the ISAC Web site: www.isac-net.org. The work of the Biosafety committee continues to lead the way in driving safety in the laboratory. Sorting appears to be surging again as stem cell studies start to gear up and a new breed of sorters begins to appear. It is interesting to see how things go in waves&.so biosafety has become a very important aspect of our committee.

The site selection committee has recommended and the Council has decided that ISAC XXV (2010) – will be in Seattle, Washington. ISAC has many outstanding members in Seattle – we look forward to a great meeting. Please make sure you keep this in the back of your mind. The exact date will be announced soon.

Within a few weeks, ISAC will distribute a new members handbook. It is over 10 years since we produced something of this nature. I hope you keep your copy close by as it is designed to give you a sense of how many of your colleagues are working hard for this Society. The Education committee is working harder than ever before. It is very exciting that you, the members just voted overwhelmingly to approve a change in the ISAC bylaws to create a new Standing Committee on Education. Education is such an important aspect of ISAC and it is now etched in constitutional stone so to speak. Look forward to the aggressive program from this committee.

ISAC is an effective organization. We the members have an impact on science.

Best wishes

J. Paul Robinson, President

Executive Director's Report, 2nd quarter 2007

by Laureen Rowland (lrowland@isac-net.org)

I am pleased to have the opportunity to include a report in the ISAC E-News. The Executive Director's Report will become a standard part of the quarterly newsletter and I look forward to keeping you, the membership, apprized of the Society's current and upcoming activities. I would like to thank all of those who communicated their welcomes and best wishes to me in my first months of service as ISAC Executive Director. I am honored to have been selected for this position and am looking forward to the challenge of managing the Society.

Member Handbook As you may be aware, ISAC is compiling a 2007 Member Handbook. This will be a comprehensive publication which will include historical information and special reports, as well as a membership directory, and is scheduled for publication in August 2007. Blast emails have been sent to the ISAC membership seeking confirmation for the member data in the ISAC database. If you have not yet responded to this request, or did not receive the emails, please contact me at lrowland@isac-net.org or directly at 301-634-7454. Only those members whose dues are paid for 2007 will be included in the handbook. If you have not yet renewed your membership for 2007, do so today!

The 2007 Member Handbook will become a valued reference guide, not only for ISAC, but for all those with an interest in the field of analytical cytology. The production of this handbook is helped by the generous support of our corporate partners through advertising in the handbook. Thank you to BD Biosciences; Beckman Coulter, Inc.; Guava Technologies; Partec; Spherotech, Inc.; Cytopeia, Inc.; Biostatus Limited; Dako; and Cobolt AB for their contributions to this very important project. Advertising opportunities are still available and information can be obtained by contacting me at lrowland@isac-net.org or 301-634-7454.

ISAC XXIV Plans for the XXIV ISAC International Congress, May 17-21, 2008, in Budapest, Hungary are moving forward. The Organizing Committee, chaired by ISAC President-Elect, Dr. Robert Murphy, is meeting regularly and the Flow, Imaging and Core Managers program subcommittees are firmly in place. No Congress is a success without the participation of our sponsors. ISAC has expanded the selection of sponsorship opportunities in 2008. Watch for your opportunity to become a Congress sponsor! Information will be mailed and posted at www.isac-net.org/congress2008/

Education Committee The ISAC membership overwhelmingly voted for the establishment of a new standing committee - the Education Committee. Thank you to all those who participated in the online discussion forum and to those who participated by voting. The Education Committee is working on the implementation of several new initiatives, including the hiring of an Education Program Director. This is a major step in the achievement of goals in the ISAC Strategic Plan.

Strategic Plan The ISAC Council is holding a strategic retreat June 15th – 16th to review the progress of their Strategic Plan. The ISAC leadership is committed to the future growth and success of the Society. If you would like to submit any comments for consideration by the Council prior to this retreat, please forward to me at lrowland@isac-net.org or to ISAC President Paul Robinson at jpr@flowcyt.cyto/purdue.edu. A survey will be emailed to the membership to determine what additional benefits and services you would like to see. ISAC is only as strong as its leadership and membership. Please continue to encourage ISAC membership among your colleagues. ISAC is working towards becoming the definitive voice in the field of analytical cytology and strength in numbers is crucial!

I look forward to working with you and hope to meet many of you in the coming months. I encourage you to contact me at any time with any comments, concerns or suggestions about how the Society can better serve you.

2008 ISAC Congress Update

Report from the 2008 Congress Organizing Committee

Your Congress Organizing Committee has been busy creating what we believe will be the most exciting ISAC program ever! Congress Program subcommittees chaired by John Nolan and Mario Roederer, Jeff Price and Jelena Kovacevic, and Derek Davies are actively recruiting leaders in the international scientific community who are advancing the use of flow cytometry, image cytometry, and other cytometric technologies in their work.

The Congress will be held in Budapest Hungary, May 17-21, 2008 and includes Keynote, Hooke, Frontier, Plenary, Parallel, and Student Presentations, as well as Tutorials, and Workshops. Back by popular demand will be the Pre-Congress Introductory Courses for Flow Cytometry and Image Cytometry, and other special events such as the Core Managers Workshop.

The official 2008 ISAC Congress webpage www.isac-net.org/congress2008/will be posted on the ISAC homepage very soon. We encourage you to visit the webpage frequently for postings of critical dates to remember, calls for manuscripts, calls for workshop and tutorial proposals, and updates on the program as it begins to unfold.

ISAC 2008 Congress Organizing Committee: Bob Murphy (Chair), Derek Davies, Lori Krueger, John Nolan, Jeff Price, Janos Szollosi

ISAC Committee News

Cytometry

by Attila Tarnok, Editor in Chief (tarnok@medizin.uni-leipzig.de)

As you certainly know I took over the responsibility for our journal Cytometry Part A at the beginning of this year. I was honoured to have been selected.

First of all I wish to express my gratitude to our previous Editor-in-Chief of Cytometry Part A, Chuck Goolsby. He guided the Journal through difficult times, doing excellent work and passed the Journal over to me in a good state. I would also like to express my thanks to the tremendous and high quality work of our Associate Editors, Editorial Board Members and reviewers. But most of all I wish to thank all the authors: Without your exciting work our Journal would not exist.

What is new? Still a lot of work has to be done to prepare the Journal for the present and the future. There is increasing competition for high-quality scientific papers by the expanding number of publishing organs. This is the reason that we (we that is of course not only myself but also the colleagues from the Wiley Editorial Office in Hoboken: Colette Bean, Susan Vice, Michael Weston and Devika Mittra, the Production Editor, Larry Graup, and last but not least the Scientific Communications Committee (SCC) led by Fred Waldman) have made and will continue to make several substantial improvements in the Journal. We have restructured our Associate Editors and our Editorial Board and recruited new members of high reputation in a broad range of cytometry-related disciplines. The number of Associate Editors is now substantially extended to reflect our broadened scientific focus. Cytometry is not only a technology but also the scientific discipline of quantitative and stoichiometric single cell analysis. A complete novelty is that we have introduced an Advisory Board to promote the Journal and guide us in strategic and long term planning. The list of new board members will appear in the July 2007 issue.

Redesign: An additional major task is the redesign of the journal itself. Last year Robert Zucker took over the task of Cover Editor to ensure every issue had a unique and recognisable face. He has done and will continue to do an excellent job. The cover and the manuscript appearance will also be redesigned for improved readability and, in order to simplify the submission process, we will reduce the number of manuscript types.

New manuscript and publication format: Reviews and Original Articles remain. Technical Notes will be replaced by the broader format of Brief Report. Brief Reports not only include technical notes but also short research papers with content of broader interest, which would not, by themselves be of sufficient quantity to warrant an original research paper. Most importantly, I hope to see Brief Reports that contain observations of assays or methods that are problematic or do not work. Normally, negative results do not find their way into scientific journals but are of pivotal importance for practical users.

“Letter to the Editor”will be reactivated and termed “Communication to the Editor”. I herewith cordially invite you all to write your comments on recent papers and to share scientific opinion and interpretation with your colleagues in order to increase our communication.

A completely new format is the “Commentary”. Commentaries are invited and should refer to manuscripts published in the same issue. The intention is to highlight manuscripts of great importance and report to a broader audience in a more generally understandable language. Authors of Commentaries will be Associate Editors or Editorial Board members but can also be invited reviewers of that manuscript. All of these manuscripts will undergo our well-established, full peer-review process.

Finally, each issue of the journal will start with “In This Issue”, a briefing on four manuscripts in a current issue, as well as “Journal Roundup” brief reports from other publications relevant to the Cytometry Part A community. I herewith cordially invite you all to submit your proposals for our Journal Roundups feature. Communication to the Editor, Commentary, In This Issue and Journal Roundup will all be freely available on the Journal homepage on Wiley InterScience.

The redesign of the journal with the new formats will appear in the August 2007 issue.

Journal management and performance. There are several crucial tasks that have to be performed in order to increase the visibility and quality of a journal. These tasks are:

• increased reading and referencing of the manuscripts as measured by the impact factor
• reduced transit time of submitted manuscripts
• increased quality of published manuscripts.

All three points are tightly related to one another. I am very happy to report that the number of newly submitted manuscripts has substantially increased since January 2007. This allows us not only to publish more manuscripts per issue (as you may have noticed by the increasing thickness of each issue) but also to more strictly select for high scientific quality (i.e. increase the rejection rate). Our increased visibility is, and I'm happy to report this, reflected by the expected “jump” in the impact factor from 2005 to 2006 (not yet officially published). Finally, we were able, with the support of the Editorial Office, in particular Editorial Assistant Devika Mittra, to massively reduce manuscript transit time by more than 30%.

My message to you! What is a journal without its contributors and readers? Nothing! The most important persons to move our science and our Journal forward are you. So this is my message to all of you: Help the Journal and thereby help your own science. Submit your best papers and reviews to Cytometry Part A. Write Communications to the Editor and Journal Roundups. Support the quality of the manuscripts by serving as a high-quality reviewer with timely reviews. Last but not least, promote your journal. Send publication alerts to colleagues and friends. Recruit new authors to submit their best manuscripts to us. And use Cytometry Part A as a major source for references in all of your publications.

Together we can make the Journal one of the leading scientific sources for cell research. Enjoy the new/old Cytometry Part A and tell me your comments and proposals that can help us all to bring the Journal to new frontiers.

Education Committee

Lori Krueger, chair (Lori_Krueger@bd.com) & Jonni Moore and Rich Konz as co-chairs

It's been a very busy quarter! ISAC membership has ratified the proposal for a constitutional bylaws change enabling the Education Task Force to become an ISAC permanent standing committee. This change recognizes ISAC's current and future commitment to developing and promoting educational and training programs for all cytometry technology users. To lead the ISAC Education Committee, ISAC has recruited for an Educational Programs Director. A number of highly qualified candidates (11) have stepped forward making the selection process extremely difficult. However, a selection committee is actively reviewing applications and will begin interviewing (via phone) candidates within the next month.

The Education Task Force assigned to address Issues in Multicolor Fluorescence (Flow Cytometry) and Appropriate use of Isotype Controls. The latter recently posted a “call for data” via the ISAC mailing list. Thank you to all of the researchers that responded to our request. The Task Force will send a reminder to the ISAC membership and those outside of ISAC, to have their data submitted by June 30th, 2007. Data review will occur during July and August.

The Education Task Force addressing Flow Cytometry has recently submitted a basic core curriculum to council for comments. The content of the core curriculum will be piloted in centers in North America and the Europe before September, 2007. Review Derek Davies Core Managers Task Force report for additional details.

In a addition to the Education Task Force addressing Flow Cytometry, a group addressing Image Cytometry will soon be under way.

ISAC wishes to encourage all of its membership to be a part of shaping the future of our society. Consider getting involved in any of ISAC's standing committees and or Task Forces. Contact us: isac@isac-net.org or 301-634-7454.

ISAC Education (Flow Issues) Sub-Committee

by Jonni Moore (moorej@mail.med.upenn.edu), co-chair and Rick Konz (richard.konz@umassmed..edu), co-chair

This sub-Committee, chaired by Jonni Moore, has been working on a basic educational curriculum which can be used by anyone involved in cytometry education. Designed to be a mostly generic half-day introduction it will introduce new and potential users to the basics of flow cytometry, the components of a cytometer, the essentials of experimental design and simple data analysis. It is designed to be adaptable to users host institutes. The curriculum will be piloted in the summer and fall in the USA and Europe. For further details and comments, please contact Jonni (moorej@mail.med.upenn.edu) or Richard (richard.knoz@umassmed..edu).

Membership Services Committee

by Laura Teodori (teodore@casaccia.ena.it) & Zofia Maciorowski (zofia.maciorowski@curie.net)
Co-Chairs, ISAC Membership Services Committee

Cytometry for developing labs. ISAC has a number of subscriptions to our journal Cytometry, which we would like to distribute to laboratories for whom they will be useful, but who cannot necessarily afford them. We request that they send us a simple letter requesting the free subscription stating the financial need and scientific appropriateness for their laboratory. The Cytometry journal will be sent as e-subscriptions (internet accessible) to eliminate mailing costs. If you know of laboratories which would benefit from these subscriptions, please ask them to contact: Zofia.Maciorowski@curie.net or teodori@casaccia.enea.it).

Scholar's program. As part of the Scholar's program, we just initiated a mentorship program. We sent out a call for mentors and a number of eminent ISAC scientists have generously agreed to dedicate their time and effort to this program. The Scholars will have the opportunity to visit their mentor's lab at least once, to learn and hopefully collaborate on a project with a resultant publication if applicable. We have enough funding for the next 2 years and are in the process of finding more money to continue after the end of 2008.

Student survey. A survey dedicated to students needs prepared by Prof. Balazs and Zachary Pinkus with the support of all other MSC members has been sent out and the results compiled, analyzed and posted on the ISAC web site (http://www.isac-net.org/content/view/577/2/) to improve student events and satisfaction at the Budapest

The respondents covered a broad range of fields of biology, medicine and engineering, with expertise in imaging as well as flow cytometry.
The results suggested some changes including:

• More student presentations at workshops
• A student-based workshop, perhaps on general "science civics" like grant and paper writing, etc.
• A student mixer before the general ISAC mixer.
• of course, more requests for student travel funding.

ISAC exhibit booth. An ISAC booth was presented at the Pharma-Finance 2007 meeting held in Rome. This was a great opportunity for ISAC to be introduced into a completely different environment which can benefit from our background. The goal of Pharma-Finance was to foster collaboration among applied research in the drug discovery field and small-medium sized enterprises, their US equivalent and international pharmaceutical and financial players, creating business opportunities and raising funds for this research. In that context ISAC has been recognized as the premier home for emerging technologies for pharma research (high throughput/high content screening, systems biology, clinical cell analysis).

Another ISAC booth was at the “Italian Spring in Japan” conference. During the session dedicated to biotechnology a small ISAC booth was hosted by Prof. Di Nardo-University of Rome Tor Vergata at his stand (www.syntechresearch.it). This gave us the opportunity to add another piece to our strategy of diffusing ISAC around the world. For all these activities we thank Lisa Reece the chair of our international subcommittee and Laureen Rowland our efficient executive director who prepared a great deal of material. The two events were at no cost for ISAC.

ISAC in India was introduced during the 7th Indian-US Flow cytometry workshop held in New Delhi and hosted by the Center for Biotechnology at the Jawaharlal University (http://www.cytometryworkshops.com/) where Dr. Krishan and his colleagues helped to spread knowledge about ISAC activities. Thanks to them we have now about 30 new members from this rapidly developing country. A Turkish-American Flow Cytometry workshop (the first one) will be held in October 2007, the local host is Professor Gunnur Deniz, president of the Turkish Society of Immunology. We will be present there as well, thanks to our Turkish colleagues that just joined ISAC and thanks to Dr. Krishan who is actively supporting our international sub-committee.

Core Managers Task Force

by Derek Davies (Derek.davies@cancer.org.uk)

The Task Force has been working on a resource for all new and current managers of flow or image-based Core Facilities. This will be web-based and aim to present the various aspects that Lab managers need to fulfill their roles. This should be live by the fall of this year. We are also keen to ensure that Core Managers have their own forums where they can meet and exchange ideas and are pro-active in supporting meetings that facilitate this. The 17th German Flow Society meeting in Regensburg, Germany on 10-13 October 2007 (http://www.dgfz.org/congresses_1_2.html) will be one such place where this will take place. Also the GLIIFCA meeting in Ontario on 28-30 September (http://www.gliifca.org/gliifca16.html) will also feature a Core Managers workshop. Further details are available from Chairman, Derek Davies (derek.davies@cancer.org.uk) – we also welcome comments from ISAC members!

Affiliated Society News

Czech Society for Analytical Cytology (our featured Society for June, 2007)

by Alois Kozubik, President CSAC (kozubik@ibp.cz)

The Czech Society for Analytical Cytology (CSAC) was founded in 2001 and currently has over 100 regular members, encouraging a significant participation of both graduate and undergraduate students. The general aims of CSAC are identical with those of ISAC - professional organization for scientists utilizing multidisciplinary, advanced technologies for the measurements of cells and cell processes, serving as a platform supporting the large scale utilization and dissemination of these techniques. It concentrates on principle devices and techniques in the field of biology and medicine, especially on flow cytometry, cell sorting, laser scanning microscopy, confocal microscopy, genomics/proteomics and large scale data analysis. A principal aim of CSAC is also to contribute to a higher degree of integration cytometry research within the Central European area. In this year, CSAC is holding already its fourth bi-annual meeting, concentrating on above described issues (Analytical cytometry IV., June 23-26, 2007, hotel Myslivna, Brno). For the second time, the meeting will feature a number of invited lectures dedicated to the above subjects, including many distinguished ISAC members.

Organizations that are new and/or “in-process” of becoming an Associated Society

by Janos Szollosi (szollo@dote.hu)

Even if not yet an associated society, all of the following organizations have responded to the invite for participation on the ISAC 2008 Congress program committee.

• Norwegian
• Irish
• Flow UK
• Swedish
• Romanian
• Czech – already approved by ISAC
• Bulgarian – just forming
• Croatian – just forming

Upcoming Meetings/Conferences/User Groups/Courses

• June 6-8, 2007. The Albert Einstein College of Medicine has invited FloCyte Associates to present a basic flow course and a course in multiparameter flow and compensation, June 6-7, and 8 respectively. More information and application can be reached at www.FloCyte.com, click on training. Contact Susan DeMaggio for more info at FloCyte@FloCyte.com.
• June 9-15, 2007. The 30th Annual Research Course in Flow Cytometry sponsored by the National Flow Cytometry Resource (NFCR) and Verity Software House will be held at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Complete information is available at http://nfcr.lanl.gov/. Application materials can be obtained from Ms. Ruby Archuleta, National Flow Cytometry Resource, Mail Stop M888, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 [voice: 505/667-3912, FAX: 505/667-2891, email: rubyra@lanl.gov].
• June 12-14, 2007. The University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio has invited FloCyte Associates to present basic and multiparameter flow courses June 12-13, and 14 respectively. A special clinical component will be offered, lectures in T and B cell case studies, during two lunch hour lectures. Contact Sue DeMaggio for more information at FloCyte@FloCyte.com
• June 21-25, 2007. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, has invited FloCyte Associates to present basic and multiparameter flow courses June 21-22, and 25 respectively. More information and application can be reached at www.FloCyte.com, click on training. Contact Susan DeMaggio for more info at FloCyte@FloCyte.com.
• July 11, 2007. WNYFUG - Registration is open for the 4th Annual Western NY Flow Cytometry Users Group meeting. This year's meeting will be on July 11th, with sessions on Technical, Clinical and Scientific Flow, along with a luncheon poster session. The meeting will again be held at the University of Rochester Medical Center's Kornberg Medical Research Building. For more information, go to http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/wnyfug/index.html or contact Timothy Bushnell (Timothy_Bushnell@URMC.Rochester.edu). In association with the annual meeting, and based on the success of the fall courses, the WNYFUG will be hosting 2 one-day training classes offered by FloCyte, Inc.: July 10th, 2007 – Intracellular Flow Cytometry and July 12th, 2007 – Multiparameter Flow and Compensation. Please see the course announcement and registration at www.FloCyte.com
• July 16-20, 2007. University of California Davis is again offering a week long short course in flow cytometry, including lectures on introductory flow cytometry and progresses through development and design of multicolor panels. Afternoon sessions will include hands-on training in applications and training on various instruments. Students will be exposed to the Cytomation MoFlo cell sorter, Becton Dickinson FACScan flow cytometer, Coulter XL-MCL flow cytometers, BD LSRII, Cytopeia, and Compucyte laser scanning cytometer. For more information and to get on the list for announcement of the beginning of registration for this short course, contact Carol Oxford at cloxford@ucdavis.edu.
• July 19-20, 2007. flowcytometryUK will hold its inaugural Scientific meeting in Kings College, Cambridge. This two-day meeting will be based around sessions covering multicolor flow application, cytometry in stem cell research, clinical issues and novel techniques and applications. The meeting will feature a full commercial exhibition and Conference dinner to allow all delegates to mix informally. Join us make a pilgrimage to famous pub, The Eagle, where Crick and Watson relaxed, announced they had found the 'secret of life' and changed the history of science! Further details are at: http://www.flowcytometryuk.org/fliers/Annual1.html. A detailed programm will appear by the end of June.
• September 6-8, 2007. The 3rd European Clinical Cytometry Course and the 7th Euroconference on Clinical Cell Analysis will be held in Antwerp, Belgium (course, 4-5 September, 2007) and Rotterdam, The Netherlands. For more detailed information please browse the web: http://www.cytometry-lowlands2007.org/ or contact Willem Corver (W.E.Corver@lumc.nl)
• September 10-14, 2007. Royal Microscopical Society Flow Course will be held at the Technology Facility, University of York. As usual this comprises a two-day basic course which can be followed by either a clinical module or a research-based module each lasting three days. The course is organized by Peter O'Toole (University of York) and Steve Couzens (University of Cardiff) and further details can be found at: http://www.rms.org.uk/event_flow.shtml
• September 28-30, 2007. GLIIFCA - 16th annual meeting of the Great Lakes International Image and Flow Cytometry Association to be held at the Windsor Hilton Hotel, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Please access our website www.gliifca.org for a preliminary scientific program, as well as registration and exhibitor information. We specifically encourage young basic and clinical researchers, med techs, flow/image core directors and cytometry technicians to use this opportunity to share their research results (oral or poster) with supportive colleagues in a friendly and encouraging environment. GLIIFCA offers substantial, competitive cash awards to defray registration and travel costs. You also may contact the President, Dr. Tim Bushnell, at Timothy_Bushnell@URMC.rochester.edu. Hope to see you there!"
• October 7-9, 2007. The 22nd Annual meeting of the Clinical Cytometry Society will be held at the Capital Hill Hyatt Regency in Washington, DC. on October 7-9, 2007. Just steps away from the US Capital, the Smithsonian Institute, and a number of other monuments and museums, this promises to be a fantastic venue. Featured sessions this year include rare event detection in clinical cytometry, dendritic cells, hempath update, cytometric assessment of targeted therapies, and regulatory affairs. There will also be computer case studies and the popular luncheon workshops. Our banquet will be held at the National Zoo in Washington. For further information, please see www.cytometry.org or contact Phil McCoy (mccoyj@nhlbi.nih.gov)
• October 25 - 28, 2007. First Turkish-US - Cytometry Workshop, sponsored by Turkish Society of Immunology and Department of Immunology and DETAE, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey. Lectures and lab demonstrations will focus on cell cycle and proliferation, apoptosis, immunophenotyping, hematopoietic stem cell analysis, drug transport and resistance. For more information contact Gaye Erten (gerten@istanbul.edu.tr) or Awtar Krishan (AKrishan@med.miami.edu) or www.turkimmunoloji.org.tr
• November 6-9, 2007. Cytometry Development Workshop. The Seventeenth Workshop "Technologies for Cell Analysis" will be held from November 6th to 9th, 2007 at the beautiful Asilomar Conference Grounds on the Monterrey Peninsula in Pacific Grove, California (http://www.burnham.org/labs/Price/CWD2007/). This workshop series brings together 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 1st) 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 Tuesday, November 6th and the workshop will conclude at noon on on Friday, Novemeber 9th. Afternoons are unscheduled to allow participants free time to enjoy the area and for individual discussions. Workshop Co-Chairs: Jeffrey H. Price, Burnham Institute for Medical Research and Howard Shapiro, Shapiro Laboratory.

Meeting Reports

flowcytometryUK

by Derek Davies (Derek.davies@cancer.org.uk)

flowcytometryUK has organized several local meetings in the past few months including a successful London Flow Group hosted by Niga Nawroly at Imperial College. The Core Managers interest group also met in Edinburgh in March at a meeting hosted by Shonna Johnston where discussions centered around Biosafety issues, standardization in clinical and research environments and data presentation issues.

FICCS 3RD Meeting

by Josef Spidlen (jspidlen@bccrc.ca), Nolwenn Le Meur, and Perry Haaland

The Flow Informatics and Computational Cytometry Society (FICCS) held its 3rd meeting at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, USA, on March 22, 2007, hosted by Robert Gentleman. The FICCS society was founded in September 2006 to connect people sharing interest in new software tools, methods, and standards for flow cytometry. The meeting drew approximately 50 attendees from both academia and industry, showing generally high interest in new computational approaches to high throughput data analyses. Morning presentations demonstrated the usage of R and new open source Bioconductor packages for powerful analyzing of flow cytometry data. Adam Treister introduced possibilities of integrating these with FlowJo. Afternoon section included individual workgroup discussions deciding about future directions. Near term software development will focus on extending basic functionality of the flowCore package, on designing flow cytometry data repositories that will support for typical data processing in a computationally accessible form, and on finishing implementation of data standard proposals developed by the group led by Ryan Brinkman. These proposals were extensively discussed during an open forum by representatives of flow cytometry software and hardware vendors. The presentations as well as detailed meeting notes can be downloaded from the FICCS web site at http://www.ficcs.org/

Pharma-Finance 2007. Rome 10-11 May

By Laura Teodori and Zofia Maciorowski

Rome, the eternal city, alongside its ancient ruins and classic architectural beauties, looks to the future. The title of this first Congress is thus "Pharma-Finance 2007 wagering on the future." Promoted by Sviluppo Lazio (www.sviluppolazio.it) in collaboration with Zangani Investor Community (www.zangani.com) to foster interactions between drugs and biotech, innovative research enterprises and finance, in order to encourage growth opportunities: science, research and behind all this, industry and finance. Pharma-Finance 2007 was an important part of a program of internationalization policies with not just words and ideas but concrete advancement. The goal was to make Italian businesses and Lazio small and medium sized enterprises interact with equivalent US and international pharmaceutical and financial players.

An ISAC booth was installed during the meeting and provided the opportunity for many attendees to visit, exchange ideas and hopefully join ISAC. The ISAC booth was situated next to the prometeo (www.prometeo.net) booth, manned by an enthusiastic young researcher Francesco Buccelletti, who just became an ISAC member. ISAC has been recognized as the premier home for emerging technologies for pharma research (high throughput/high content screening, systems biology, clinical cell analysis).

During the meeting Professor Elia Valori, president of Sviluppo Lazio, presented an award to Professor François Gros for his deep engagement in social and scientific work towards the development of a human and ethical society, through the concept that public health is the real treasure of the people. Professor Gros is the Honorary Permanent Secretary of French Academy of Sciences and a member of the Academies of Sciences of India, Venezuela, Russia, Greece and Belgium. He is the former director of the Pasteur Institute and Professor Emeritus of biochemistry at the College de France. Professor Gros kindly accepted an invitation to join ISAC.

Our Rome administration established a short term mobility fellowship for a stage in a major pharmaceutical company in the US. This fellowship will also grant a 1 year ISAC membership and the registration for the ISAC Budapest meeting.