Best Laboratory Practices for the Flow Cytometry Laboratory

Held in conjunction with CellTech 2013

21 Jan 2013, at 09:00 in San Diego, CA, USA

About the Course

Quality in the flow lab is critical to achieving excellent patient results as well as reproducible data for publication, whether your lab is in a research facility or a clinical setting.  Without attention to the issues of assay validation and standardization, quality control and instrument setup, any data produced can not be trusted!  This course will cover all aspects of Optimizing your instrument and assays, important topics, such as controls, compensation, as well as clinical validation.  Every instrument should perform at peak performance, and produce equivalent results!  This course will help you ensure that your laboratory or instrumentation is producing the best results.

6 contact hours of CEUs are available for those with CA state licenses in Clinical Laboratory Science, and ASCP Qualification in Cytometry or ICCE Certification in Cytometry.  When you register for the course, email FloCyte@FloCyte.org to submit your request for CEUs.  

Course Outline:

For this course we will cover issues critical for both research and clinical flow facilities:

Overview of Quality Management System
Assay and instrument optimization
Quality Control
Titration and other reagent issues
Compensation
Calibration
Characterization
Clinical v Research Flow
and
Instrument Sensitivity

When you leave the course you should be able to organize your own laboratory's system for quality assurance in flow cytometry.  You will know how to validate your assay, run proper controls, and  how to assess your data for accuracy.

Who should attend

The Best Lab Practices for the Flow Cytometry Lab course is designed for both clinical and research cytometrists.   Whether you use this amazing technology daily, as a core manager or clinical technologist,  just occasionally run a single small analyzer in your own lab, or stain your own samples, and take them to another lab / instrument for analysis, you need to be aware of and practice the Best Laboratory Practices, to produce accurate data.    If you are concerned about your results, you should consider this course! 

About FloCyte Associates 

FloCyte Associates is the gold standard in Flow Cytometry training!   Our mission is to provide a placement service and training to recruit and equip qualified, trained personnel, for operation of highly technological equipment such as flow cytometry and confocal microscopy, or related fields, to fulfill needs in research, medical and educational facilities and BioTech environments, in universities, industry, and hospitals.  You can find more on our training program, including an calendar of upcoming events, at www.FloCyte.org 

About Our Instructors 

Dr. David Galbraith received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Biochemistry from Cambridge University. At the University of Arizona he teaches graduate courses in Genomics (MCB/PLS539), and in Plant Biochemistry (EEB/MCB/BIOC 453/553). His research interests include biological instrumentation (particularly in flow and image cytometry, and microarrays), developmental and tissue-specific gene expression in eukaryotes, functional and chemical genomics, and proteomics. Dr. Galbraith is a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science. David teaches our flow courses with specialties in Non-Mammalian Flow, and Fluorescent Proteins.

Jeffrey Louie, MT (ASCP) is a clinical cytometrist with over 40 years experience in flow.  He earned his BS at California State University at Los Angeles and is a California licensed Clinical Laboratory Scientist and ASCP registered with a speciality in Medical Technology.  He was Chief Technologist in charge of all laboratory personnel and laboratory operations including research and development at the USC Flow Cytometry Laboratory, Los Angeles, CA for almost 20 years and before that, Medical Technologist Supervisor of Immunology/Serology Department at LAC/USC Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA for 9 years.  Jeff consults for us in Clinical flow settings.