Sarah Levy Schreier, MSc, BSc
Chief Technology Officer, Sight Diagnostics, Tel Aviv, Israel


Julian Riba, PhD
CSO, Cytena GmbH

Alban Gaultier, PhD

Associate Professor, University of Virginia School of Medicine

Chotima Böttcher, PhD

Senior Scientist, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Clinic, Molecular Psychiatry Lab

In recent years, there has been increasing acknowledgement of the important role mental health plays in achieving global development goals, as illustrated by the inclusion of mental health in the Sustainable Development Goals. Depression is one of the leading causes of disability and suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds. People with severe mental health conditions die prematurely – as much as two decades early – due to preventable physical conditions. Recently, much has been discovered about the link between the immune system and mental health. Likewise, there is increasing evidence that dysbiosis and inflammation of the gut is linked to several mental illnesses, including anxiety and depression. Cytometric technologies, especially flow and mass cytometry, have played a major role in these areas of research and are expected to be instrumental in unraveling the relationship of the microbiome and the immune system with mental health disorders and ultimately lead to better treatment options.

Join one of the following collaborative networking sessions and discuss these topics with your peers.
 

• Big Data, AI, Data Standards, Data Analytics
• Diagnostic Flow Cytometry, COVID-19 and Vaccines
• Environmental Cytometry (food, water, agriculture), Air Quality
• Globalizing Biosafety
• Image Cytometry

Marianne Enger, MSc

Head Engineer and Flow Cytometry specialist, Kjetil Tasken group, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University hospital

Stephen Cose, PhD

Assistant Professor in Immunology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach — working at the local, regional, national, and global levels — with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment. A recent challenge for both human and animal health is the spread of antimicrobial resistance at an alarming rate. Misuse of antimicrobials for human use and in animal husbandry has driven the increase in antimicrobial resistance, making it more difficult to treat human and animal infections. There is a real concern that in the very near future, antimicrobials will no longer be effective due to resistance. As Stephan Harbarth and colleagues point out in their report Antimicrobial resistance: one world, one fight! it is a global challenge, in which many professionals and even the public have to play a part in fighting.

Beckman Coulter Life Sciences
Lauren Thompson, Flow Cytometry Technician, Flow Cytometry Science Center, Center for Extracellular Vesicle Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Brandy Pinckney – Flow Cytometry Technician, Flow Cytometry Science Center, Center for Extracellular Vesicle Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
“Enrichment of microRNA using a novel avalanche photodiode-based benchtop cell sorter”
In the past few years, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have rapidly become one of the most studied entities. EVs are characterized by their outer lipid layer and internalized cargo such as microRNA (miR). EVs and their cargo have been shown to regulate gene expression and alter cell function in various cell types (Kreimer et al., 2015, Mantel et al., 2013). Isolation and molecular profiling of subsets of EVs (i.e., RNAs, proteins, lipids, metabolites) are critical for understanding the biogenesis of EVs and their potential utility as biomarkers (Pereira et al., 2020). To this end, flow cytometry has been employed for the analysis, characterization, and phenotyping of EV populations and their cargo in a technique called nano-flow cytometry. While nano-flow cytometry has become more prevalent as an analysis tool and undergone standardization formats (Welsh et al., 2020), nano-sorting is neither well defined nor a commonly used technique. Historically, this is due to the complexity of the technique and instrumentation necessary for sorting of EVs (Morales-Kastresana et al., 2019, Kormelink et al., 2015). In this study, the CytoFLEX SRT, a semiconductor based benchtop cell sorter equipped with avalanche photodiodes and optimized signal detection, (Brittain et al., 2019) is utilized for the detection and nano-sorting of miRs in EV populations. Platelet EVs, red blood cell EVs, and neutrophil EVs are mixed with molecular beacons (MBs) targeted to miR495, miR451, and miR148 respectively. MBs are nucleic acid sequences locked in a hairpin conformation with a quencher signal and fluorophore attached to the end (Tyagi, 1996). Upon binding with a specific target RNA sequence, the quencher is spatially moved from the fluorophore and a fluorescent signal is produced. Upon analysis of the EV populations with MBs via VSSC and fluorescent thresholding, fluorescent positive signals corresponding to the particular miR target were sorted. Sorted samples were verified via microscopy and PCR analysis and compared to fluorescent negative miR EVs. The presence of EV populations and subsequent increased target miRs, verified via dark field and fluorescent microscopy, confirm sorting efficiency compared to the negative population. Additionally, CT values from the PCR analysis show 8x difference in miR detection between positive and negative sorted samples. These results show the CytoFLEX SRT to be a viable instrument for nano-sorting.

Cytek Biosciences Inc.
Gil Reinin, Senior Director of Research Marketing. Cytek Biosciences Inc.
Maria Jaimes, MD – Vice President of Applications, Cytek Biosciences Inc.
“Full Spectrum Profiling (FSP™) let you see it, now Aurora CS will let you sort it!”
There has been a growing need among researchers in immunology, cancer biology, and immunotherapy to deeply investigate specific cellular subsets that are defined by the expression or lack of expression of a variety of markers. This allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the complex immunological environment in health and disease. The Cytek® Aurora, with its innovative Full Spectrum Profiling (FSP™) technology, provides a solution by enabling researchers to develop high resolution high complexity cytometry panels, such as the optimized 40-color panel recently published in Cytometry A. This same technology is fueling the Cytek® Aurora CS, a new cell sorter that takes full advantage of this full spectrum approach, and combines that with all the sorting capabilities you have come to expect in a high-capacity sorter. Learn how Aurora CS can help take your research to the next level by harnessing the power of Full Spectrum Profiling (FSP™) to isolate and further characterize populations of interest to gain deeper insights into the biology.

Thermo Fisher Scientific
Seddon Y. Thomas, PhD – Staff Scientist Cell Biology, Protein and Cell Analysis, Thermo Fisher Scientific
“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of 45 color panel design: Building to Higher Parameters while Maintaining Biological Resolution”
Multiparameter full spectrum flow cytometry grants unprecedented access to previously unattainable parameters in cellular biology. Fluorescent dye performance heavily impacts both the quality and the dimensionality of flow cytometry experiments. The development of fluorescent labels engineered with targeted excitation and emission spectra using the Invitrogen™ Phiton™ DNA platform has allowed us to expand the number of biological questions that can be asked in a single panel from 40 to 45 colors. However, as we approach the theoretical limit of detection, data analysis increases in complexity with the combination of spectral unmixing and data deconvolution. In this tutorial, we take a deep dive into the data generated by the world’s first 45 color flow experiment, examining what works and what doesn’t in high dimensional flow cytometry. We will also explore the iterative process involved in developing and evaluating high parameter spectral flow cytometry panels.

Sony Biotechnology Inc.
Koji Futamura – Project Manager, Medical Business Group, Sony Corporation
Marcia Mesquita Peixoto – Ph.D. Student, Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde and Institut Pasteur
Francisca Soares-da-Silva, PhD – Post-Doctoral Researcher, Lymphocytes and Immunity Lab – Institut Pasteur
Ana Cumano, MD – Professor Pasteur, DRCE INSERM, Lymphocytes and Immunity Unit, Institut Pasteur
Cedric Ait-Mansour, Regional Sales Manager, Sony Biotechnology Inc.
“Scientific Insights using the Sony ID7000 Spectral Analyzer: Introduction to the system and Identification of novel fetal liver stromal subsets with spectral cytometry using autofluorescence as a parameter”

High dimensional spectral cytometry has vastly increased the ability to gain insights into cellular states at a single cell level and understand their dynamics during normal and disease development. The combination of state-of-the-art optical capabilities in the ID7000 spectral cell analyzer with algorithm-driven automated analysis allows to scale up multi-parameter experiments and provides a rigorous ability to gain in-depth information of the different cell phenotypes.

Research Study:
The fetal liver is the main hematopoietic organ during embryonic development. The fetal liver is also the unique anatomical site where hematopoietic stem cells expand before colonizing the bone marrow, where they ensure life-long blood cell production and become mostly resting. The identification of the different cell types that comprise the hematopoietic stroma in the fetal liver is essential to understand the signals required for the expansion of the hematopoietic stem cells. We used a panel of monoclonal antibodies to identify fetal liver stromal cells in spectral flow cytometry using a 5-laser equipped analyzer. Using the Sony software feature “Autofluorescence Finder” we identified two distinct autofluorescence emission spectrums. Taking advantage of the software that treats autofluorescence as a fluorescence parameter we could assign the two autofluorescence to two distinct cell types and identify the unique surface markers that characterize these populations. Using these surface markers, we sorted the two populations in conventional flow cytometry and characterized their transcriptional profiles. We found that one autofluorescent population corresponds to hepatoblasts and cholangiocytes whereas the other expresses mesenchymal transcripts and is the major producer of Cxcl12, an important chemokine for hematopoietic stem cells.
These results show that autofluorescence used as a parameter in spectral flow cytometry is a useful tool to identify new cell subsets in populations that have strong autofluorescence, and that would otherwise be difficult to analyze in conventional flow cytometry.

10X Genomics

Applied Cells

BD Biosciences

The CYTO Innovation Technology Showcase has been an exciting kickoff event for the CYTO Congress since 2013 showcasing incredible start-ups and aspiring entrepreneurs who seek to commercialize their cytometry technologies, services and applications. Each of our finalists will make their pitch at CYTO Virtual Interactive on June 8, 2021 in an exciting live session. A jury of experts will ask probing questions, and along with voting from the viewing audience, a winner will be selected based on a convincing business model and the likelihood of progressing their technology offering into a successful business. This event is a great segue into countless conversations between entrepreneurs, potential investors, strategic partners, and technology users. For the CYTO audience this is an opportunity to glimpse how this world operates and even plan their own innovation journeys.  This is always a CYTO event not to be missed!

Moderators:

William (Bill) Hyun

Bill is a respected expert in both basic research and clinical lab application development with a strong concentration on cytometric hardware and software, optical imaging and genomic technologies. He has designed, engineered and validated more than twenty commercial instruments, reagents, and software solutions and has co-founded ten biotechnology companies. Bill is a faculty member in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a Venture Partner with Genoa Ventures.

Elena Holden

Elena’s area of expertise and interests are in advancing the commercialization of breakthrough developments in cancer cell biology, personalized biomarkers of disease progression and therapy together with the implementation of imaging cytometry systems for cell-based analyses. During her career she led multifunctional teams as Chief Strategic Marketing at Thorlabs, President and CEO of Compucyte Corporation, and Business Development Manager/Regional Director at Chiron Diagnostics. Today Elena leads development and commercialization of IVD products as President and CEO, Tomocube USA, Inc. and Chief Strategy Officer, TomoCube, South Korea. She is also an Associate Editor of the Cytometry Part A, the official journal of ISAC and a committee member of the SPIE/ Photonics West Quantitative Phase Imaging.

Distinguished Judges:

Alexis Ji

Alexis Ji, PhD is a Partner at Illumina Ventures. Alexis brings years of experience in research and venture investment with a focus on investing in early-stage technology platforms and applications in the life science tools, diagnostics, therapeutics and digital health.

Dara Wright

Dara Wright is EVP and President of the Clinical Diagnostics Group at Bio-Rad. Dara leads group operations globally, including product and business development. She has over two decades of experience applying her business acumen to finding, nurturing, and commercializing key technologies in both life sciences and clinical diagnostics.

Christian Dose

Christian Dose, PhD is the Head of Chemical Biology in the Research and Development department at Miltenyi Biotec B.V. & Co. KG. Since 2008 his main efforts focus on strategies to generate innovative instrument and reagent technologies for flow cytometry and magnetic cell sorting applications with expertise in innovation, strategic business planning, technology transfer, product development, and related science and technology.

Sofie Van Gassen, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher, VIB-UGhent Center for Inflammation Research

Nima Aghaeepour, PhD
Assitant Professor, Stanford University

The root of the word “Cytometry” is two Greek words “Kytos” and “metria”; literally translating as “cell measurement”. As cytometrists, we seek to use technologies and methodologies that allow us to turn our cells in to sets of numbers that hopefully then allow us to accurately describe the biology under investigation. One of the biggest challenges we face is how to deal with such rich data, often composed of hundreds of thousands of single cells and possibly thousands of individual measurement per cell. Moreover, we are now in the realms of “multi-omics” cytometry approaches as well as technologies that are able to conduct tissue-based spatial analysis adding further layers of complexity. Global initiatives such as the Human Cell Atlas (HCA) and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) are being driven at pace by single cell (cytometry) technologies and are all too aware of the challenges posed by data analysis. Our single cell data however is often part of a much bigger picture where it must be integrated an analysed within the wider context of social, occupational and environmental metrics as well as those of a clinical, biological and behavioral nature. This session will focus on enabling and empowering tools for single cell data analysis and we will hear from two leading experts in this field. Please join us for what will be a superb event.

Join one of the following collaborative networking sessions and discuss these topics with your peers. 
 

• Big Data, AI, Data Standards, Data Analytics
• Cell Sorting
• Environmental Cytometry (food, water, agriculture), Air Quality
• Image Cytometry
• Nano Particle Cytometry- Extracellular Vesicles, Virus, Bacteria and Liposomes and Synthetics

Virginia Armbrust, PhD

Professor, School of Oceanography, University of Washington

David Ehrhardt, PhD

Senior Staff Scientist, Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution for Science

Healthier environments could prevent almost one quarter of the global burden of disease. The COVID-19 pandemic is a further reminder of the delicate relationship between people and our planet. Clean air, stable climate, adequate water, sanitation and hygiene, safe use of chemicals, protection from radiation, healthy and safe workplaces, sound agricultural practices, health-supportive cities and built environments, and a preserved nature are all prerequisites for good health.

Beckman Coulter Life Sciences
Hervé Luche, PhD – Scientific Director, CIPHE (INSERM-CNRS-AMU)
“Cytometry data sharing platform for collaborative multi-centric data analysis”
CIPHE immunophenotyping services foster several long-distance collaborations. The current pandemic situation, projects could move forward using the Cytobank cloud-based solution to project CIPHE analysis capabilities in cytometry to distant partners. In this webinar, Dr. LUCHE will showcase the ease of data management and illustration design in the Cytobank platform, allowing fast interrogation of multi-group multi-sample datasets. He will demonstrate how interactivity due to response server pace allows users to modify illustrations « as they speak » during a teleconference, address any potential questions that might emerge over a collaborative TC session assessing dataset and analysis quality. More intuitive key functionalities introduced into the latest version of the Cytobank platform will be presented for faster adoption of the software by new users.
Learning objectives:
• Organize and edit illustrations using the latest version of the Cytobank platform.
• Organize experiments and share data and illustrations using the Cytobank platform.
• QC tips for advanced machine-learning approaches using the Cytobank platform.

Bio-Rad Laboratories
Daniel Fitzgerald, PhD – Associate Director, Discovery Research, NextCure, Inc
“FIND-IOTM High Throughput BioRad ZE5 Flow Cytometry-Based Screening for Novel Cancer Therapeutics Presentation”
The Functional, Integrated NextCure Discovery of Immune Oncology (FIND-IOTM) is a high throughput gene library screening platform developed for the identification of immune oncology target identification based on novel molecular function. Flow cytometry-based gene library screening methodology has been developed in order to screen primary human immune cells for cellular phenotype and molecular function. The Bio-Rad ZE5 Cell Analyzer has been integrated with Propel Labs Ascent robotics and a BioMek i7 liquid handling system to perform FIND-IOTM screening.

Cytek Biosciences Inc.
Geoff Kraker – Global Data Analyst, Cytek Biosciences Inc.
“Investigating COVID-19 Immune Response with the Cytek® Aurora”
Learn the basics of full spectrum flow cytometry and how to choose fluorochromes and design panels utilizing up to 40 fluorochromes. Then, walk through two case studies with us where full spectrum flow cytometry panels were designed and applied to COVID-19 research studies. Examples of high-dimensional analytics tools will be demonstrated, and helpful tips and lessons learned will be shared.

Thermo Fisher Scientific
Gregory Kaduchak, PhD – Lead, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Katie Alford, PhD – Product Manager, Flow Cytometry Instruments, Thermo Fisher Scientific 
“Introducing the Invitrogen™ Attune™ CytPix™ Flow Cytometer: “Seeing is Believing”
Introducing a new standard in benchtop flow cytometry that helps you effortlessly verify flow cytometry data by producing high-resolution images of user-defined cell populations. The Invitrogen Attune Cytpix flow cytometer is a conventional flow cytometer that will collect up to 14 channels of fluorescent data while simultaneously capturing high resolution bright field images. Scientists can collect flow cytometry data at conventional flow cytometry event rates without having to modify their standard panels and/or sample preparation. Collection of selected images at flow rates of up to 1000 µL per minute significantly increases the depth of flow cytometry data yielding important information for quality control, single cell morphological cell characterization, and cell-to-cell interactions. “Seeing is believing” is especially true in experiments where having confirmation of a few specific cells can determine the final outcome of the experiment. To aid scientists in controlling the mountains of data storage that are required for typical imaging flow cytometers, the imaging-enhanced flow cytometer includes tools to customize the data footprint to their experiments. Scientist can collect only the images that are of interest. By combining new camera technologies for rapid image capture with our acoustic focusing technology to address depth of field limitations, the Attune CytPix flow cytometer enables Thermo Fisher Scientific to enable researchers to use this first hybrid system compatible with high speed, high throughput flow cytometry and high-speed imaging.

Luminex Corporation
Maria Gracia García Mendoza, PhD
Haley Puglsey, PhD
Bryan Davidson
Vidya Venkatachalam, PhD
“Illuminating Immune Cell Interactions Using Imaging Flow Cytometry and Amnis® AI”
The immunological synapse (IS) is a dynamic and highly organized interface between a T cell and an antigen-presenting cell (APC). The IS sustains T cell activation and requires cortical actin cytoskeleton rearrangement. Fluorescence microscopy can measure IS formation by fluorescently labeling molecules that are recruited to the interface (i.e., surface receptors and signaling proteins), and imaging their localization and rearrangement. However, immune synapses are rare events, and using traditional microscopy techniques to study them can be difficult, time-consuming, and often generate low statistical significance.
In this study, we used the Amnis® FlowSight® Imaging Flow Cytometer and IDEAS® Software to isolate T cell-APC conjugates, identify the region of cell contact by F-actin localization, and evaluate the percentage of T cells with organized immune synapses. Further, we employed Amnis® AI Image Analysis Software for immune synapse image classification and included criteria to identify subtle morphological differences, improving the classification model efficacy.
For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

BD Biosciences

Jean Qiu, PhD
Founder, Chief Technology Officer, Nexcelom

Julie Nelson

Lab Manager, Cytometry Shared Resource Laboratory, Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Disease, University of Georgia

Alvaro Bertho, PhD

Senior Researcher, Flow Cytometry Core, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, FIOCRUZ

The scope of this session is to illustrate the relevance of flow cytometry in trying to understand the biology and interactions of parasites, bacteria, and viruses responsible for tropical diseases including the immunopathogenesis developed by the host and how flow cytometry contributes to bettering our understanding of the immune response in neglected-tropical diseases and to improving treatments.
During the first part of the session, Julie Nelson from the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases (USA) will show how flow cytometry is used to develop research tools to study the metabolic and biochemical functions of parasites in their interaction with host cells, to study the immune response to infection and to discover new drugs, assess drug efficacy and drug resistance. Ms. Nelson will use publications from their faculty to highlight the multi-functionality of flow analysis, sorting and imaging to “pursue cutting edge research on tropical and emerging global disease, train students in this field, and effectively tackle global diseases of poverty” (from their mission statement https://ctegd.uga.edu/about/who-we-are/)
Dr. Alvaro Luiz Bertho, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz – FioCruz (Brazil), will show some flow cytometry applications in the study of immunopathogenesis of neglected-tropical diseases, such as Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, Malaria and Schistosomiasis. Dr. Bertho will illustrate some of the different approaches that they regularly use such as immunological responses, apoptosis, cell cytotoxicity and cellular exhaustion, as well as the contributions of Extracellular Vesicles in the immune response of infected patients.

Join one of the following collaborative networking sessions and discuss these topics with your peers. 
 

• Big Data, AI, Data Standards, Data Analytics
• Diagnostic Flow Cytometry, COVID-19 and Vaccines
• Full Spectrum Flow Cytometry
• Globalizing Biosafety
• Single Cell Genomics

Mario Roederer, PhD

Senior Investigator, ImmunoTechnology Section, Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health

Sonia Mayra Pérez Tapia, PhD

Executive Director, UDIMEB

Sony Biotechnology Inc.
Moshe Feldman, PhD – Director of Translational Cancer Immunology, Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, The Broad Institute
Deena Soni, PhD – Global Marketing Manager, Sony Biotechnology Inc.
Nicole Abreu, PhD – Science and Technology Advisor, 10X Genomics
“Analysis of the PDL1 landscape using Single Cell Approaches for Profiling Patient Response”
Immune-based therapies targeting the inhibitory receptors (PD-L1, PD1, and CTLA4) are proven to be effective to treat malignancies ranging from non-small cell lung cancer to Merkel cell carcinoma.
But some patients do not respond or stop responding within the first year of therapy. Identifying the underlying mechanisms associated with these variable response rates remains an important
open research challenge in clinical oncology.
Join our commercial tutorial to learn how a team of researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital are using combinatorial approaches to analyze single cells from patients to explore the mechanisms of PD-L1 resistance in cancer and treatment response. Technologies from Sony and 10x Genomics used for single cell isolation and analysis of immune cells in this study will also be discussed.

Thermo Fisher Scientific
Alan Saluk – Senior Scientific Director, The Scripps Research Institute
Patricia Rogers – Associate Director, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Rachael Walker, PhD – Head of Flow Cytometry, The Babraham Institute
“The Bigfoot Spectral Cell Sorter: Accelerating Science”
In May 2020, the Bigfoot Spectral Cell Sorter was shared with the global flow cytometry community with a virtual launch. Since then, there have been many systems placed in laboratories and users of all types have been able to immerse themselves into the Bigfoot experience and explore the various capabilities and unique features that it offers. In this tutorial, Bigfoot users share their experiences using the instrument, diving into the versatility of a full spectrum sorter, ease of use for both seasoned and new users, and the cutting edge capabilities of doing high parameter spectral sorts. At the end of the presentation, a question and answer session will allow further discussion with both the users and technical experts behind the design and development of the Bigfoot Spectral Cell Sorter.

Bio-Rad Laboratories
Mike Blundell, PhD – Global Product Manager, Bio-Rad
Larry Wong, PhD – Senior Scientist, Bio-Rad Laboratories
“MAIT cells responses to alveolar epithelial cells expressing COVID-19 spike protein using StarBright dyes”
Infectious disease studies have gained traction as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Evaluating the COVID-19 spike protein in MAIT cells using StarBright dyes, novel fluorescent nanoparticles specifically developed for both conventional and spectral flow cytometry, we studied various immune modulatory markers. Specifically, alveolar epithelial cell line A549 was infected using adenoviral vector to determine the response of MAIT cells in an in vitro co-culture system. Inflammatory markers: TNFalpha, IFNgamma and IL-6, in both innate & adaptive cells were examined. Since the StarBright dyes are exceptionally bright, have narrow excitation and emission spectra, can be used in any buffer, and have minimal lot-to-lot variability; they were an excellent addition to this flow cytometry panel.

10X Genomics

FlowJo, LLC

NanoCellect Biomedical, Inc.

Mark Cowley, PhD
Leader, Children’s Cancer Institute, Australia

Jinmiao Chen, PhD
PI, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)

Swaine Chen, MD, PhD
Group Leader, Infectious Diseases, Associate Professor of Medicine, Genome Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore

Sunghoon Kwon, PhD

Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University, CEO, QuantaMatrix Corp

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when pathogens change over time to no longer respond to medicines, making them much harder to treat and fueling the spread of disease. The alarming spread of multi-and pan-resistant bacterial “superbugs”, coupled with antibiotic shortages affecting countries at all stages of development and the paucity of the antimicrobial clinical pipeline have created a global emergency requiring innovative thinking to resolve. Quantitative cell sciences can provide improvements in the sensitivity and rapidity of clinical detection of antimicrobial resistance, help map and even predict of resistance patterns, and inform the development of robust and targeted antimicrobial approaches to meet this global challenge.

Join one of the following collaborative networking sessions and discuss these topics with your peers. 

• Big Data, AI, Data Standards, Data Analytics
• Cell Sorting
• Full Spectrum Flow Cytometry
• Nano Particle Cytometry
• Single Cell Genomics

Sharon Lewin, AO, FRACP, FAHMS

Director, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity

iotaSciences
Katia Mattis, PhD – Research Scientist, iotaSciences
“Delivering the cells that matter: Highly efficient single-cell cloning with iotaSciences’ cloning platform “
Expansion of single cells into stable clonal cell lines is an important aspect of diverse research applications, including genome editing, drug discovery, cancer research and regenerative medicine.
Traditional single-cell cloning methods, such as manual colony picking or limiting dilution into well-plates, are costly, tedious and time consuming. Due to the lack of reliable verification of monoclonality, these approaches carry a substantial risk of selecting and propagating non-clonal cells.
Here, we will provide an overview of iotaSciences’ automated single-cell cloning platform which addresses these critical bottlenecks. It utilises a novel fluid-shaping technology to fabricate miniature cell culture chambers (GRIDs) on polystyrene dishes. Cells are automatically dispensed into individual GRID chambers in sub-microliter volumes and cultivated therein. The unique optical properties and small size of chambers allow easy visual identification of individual cells directly after plating and tracking of subsequent colony outgrowth.
Examples of how the cloning platform can be incorporated and simplify typical applications in the stem cell field, including a CRISPR genome editing workflow, will be discussed.

NanoFCM Inc.
Alice Law, PhD – Senior Application Scientist, NancoFCM Inc.
“NanoAnalyzer: Combining flow cytometry and particle analysis to meet the challenges of the nano-scale”
NanoFCM designs advanced scientific instrumentation, allowing the measurement of exosomes, nanomedicines, viruses and mitochondria. The NanoAnalyzer platform offers a flexible, high-throughput solution for sub-micron analysis. Operating similarly to a conventional flow cytometer, it allows screening for a wide array of biological markers, simultaneously measuring side scatter and fluorescence signals for each particle, from which total and subpopulation size and concentration can be derived.

Coherent
Ingo Waldeck – Senior Product Line Manager, Coherent LaserSystems GmbH
“New Lasers for Flow Cytometry”
Do you know about the latest trends in laser design for the flow cytometers? Watch this talk with Ingo Waldeck to learn how new products and methods can support your instrument design.
The global pandemic demonstrated that the importance of life science research and modern diagnostics is stronger than ever. The high pace of and the progress in research fields like immunology is driving the flow cytometry market to new growth. Coherent as a leading and established laser provider for fluorescence-based instruments supports this market by expanding the product matrix in wavelength and power dimensions.
In this talk, we will describe the latest additions based on novel DPSS, well-known OPSL and high-end diode laser technology. We will also explain how Coherent demonstrates its “Operational Excellence,” how laser products address the design requirements of instrument manufacturers, and how technical solutions simplify the integration into instruments like flow cytometers.

Fluidigm Corporation
Thiru Selvanantham, PhD – Senior Product Manager, Mass Cytometry, Fluidigm
“Think you know CyTOF? We invite you to think again!”
Think you know CyTOF? We invite you to think again! 
Both discovery and translational research projects benefit from the use of high-parameter cytometry, but investigators encounter multiple challenges when implementing such technologies, especially for longitudinal, multi site studies.
Mass cytometry, or cytometry by time-of-flight (used in CyTOF® systems), has been embraced by academic institutions and Pharma companies around the world for use in over 150 clinical and translational research trials. The 50-plus markers available in a single experiment, the ease of panel design and adjustment and the award-winning Maxpar® Direct™ Immune Profiling Assay™ all support extremely rapid time-to-data for high parameter cytometry, making CyTOF an attractive alternative to fluorescence-based cytometry for translational studies. Of recent note, the first COVID-19 studies with panels of 25 parameters or more were published using CyTOF.
However, as with any high-parameter cytometer, daily system setup and calibration of CyTOF systems can still be involved, often requiring an operator to load samples manually and watch for any indication of clogging or a change in system performance.
In our tutorial, we introduce an automated acquisition system for mass cytometry that, along with new calibration and data processing approaches, addresses these issues. Simplified daily workflows and internal systems monitoring will save service facilities and instrument operators time and resources, increasing productivity. Investigators will benefit from the increased data quality and reproducibility enabled by the addition of automation to sample resuspension and loading as well as live data normalization.
Whether you think you already know CyTOF well or have never heard of it, we invite you to join us.
What insights await you neXT?
For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.
Limited Use Label License: The purchase of this Fluidigm Instrument and/or Consumable product conveys to the purchaser the limited, nontransferable right to use with only Fluidigm Consumables and/or Instruments respectively except as approved in writing by Fluidigm. Trademarks: Fluidigm, the Fluidigm logo, CyTOF, Direct, Immune Profiling Assay and Maxpar are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Fluidigm Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners. © 2021 Fluidigm Corporation. All rights reserved. 05/2021

Tercen Data Analytics Ltd.
Faris Naji – CEO, Tercen Data Analytics Ltd.
“Clustering Methods for High-Dimensional Data from Single-Cell Flow and Mass Cytometry”
High-dimensional flow cytometry and mass cytometry (CyTOF) have made it possible to detect the expression levels of dozens of protein markers in thousands of cells per second. This allows cell populations to be characterized in unprecedented detail. Traditional data analysis by “manual gating” can be inefficient and unreliable in these high-dimensional settings, and this has led to the development of many automated analysis methods. These methods, designed for unsupervised analysis, use specialized clustering algorithms to detect and define cell populations for further analysis downstream. In this tutorial I have implemented and performed a suite of up-to-date clustering methods for high-dimensional flow and mass cytometry data. I use several publicly available data sets that originate from the Immunology field and contain both significant and rare cell populations. I will outline several of the most effective methods, including FlowSOM, X-shift, PhenoGraph, flowMeans, and compare each one to Manual Gating. This tutorial is implemented on the Tercen data analysis platform, so researchers can learn about the clustering methods interactively. The tutorial seeks to explain the advantages and disadvantages of different clustering methods.