The 8th edition of the highly successful annual courses on Clinical Cytometry will be held on Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 September. The courses are aimed at medical doctors, PhDs, pharmacists, biologists, engineers, laboratory managers and technical laboratory staff related to clinically applied flow cytometry.

This year 5 courses will be organised. For a description of each course, please see below. Register in time - the highly popular courses are always fully booked in no-time! 

Course 1: Basic principles in clinical cytometry
Course Organiser: Zsuzsa Hevessy (Debrecen, Hungary)

This course has been designed for the less experienced cytometrists and beginners in the field and will feature lectures on quality control, preanalytical and analytical errors and the basis of immunophenotyping of hematological malignancies (ALL, AML, CLL, MDS). Practical exercises will include list mode data analyses and the emphasis will be on proper identification of normal and pathological populations and appropriate gating techniques. Furthermore, analysis with several softwares will be introduced for participants.

Maximum number of participants: 50

Click HERE for the preliminary programme.

Course 2: Quantitative cytometry and cell sorting         
Course Organisers:
Day 1: Peter Nagy (Debrecen, Hungary)
Day 2: Alfonso Blanco and Barry Moran (Dublin, Ireland), John Daley (Boston, USA)

The first day of the course will give you a brief overview of how quantitative information can be extracted from flow and image cytometry data about receptor numbers and interactions. Special attention will be given to advanced fluorescence labeling techniques, FRET (fluorescence resonance energy transfer), FCS (fluorescence correlation spectroscopy), LSC (laser scanning cytometry), cell cycle analysis, bead-based multiplex analysis and the application of AFM (atomic force microscopy) in protein aggregation diseases.

The second day of the course will cover all aspects of modern cell sorting. We will introduce the key ideas and considerations, before moving promptly to the instrumentation QC and operation. Using advanced techniques to remotely operate flow sorters in a reference lab, we will demonstrate instrumentation set up, as well as analyzing and sorting samples concerning various sorting applications.

Maximum number of participants: 50

Click HERE for the preliminary programme.

Course 3: Vascular biology (thrombosis and cytometry)
Course Organiser: Jaco Kraan (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) 

This course is intended for scientists as well as clinicians dealing with various aspects of vascular biology. Special emphasis will be given to outline the interactions of platelets, leukocytes and endothelial cells. The techniques for the analysis of circulating endothelial cells and endothelial progenitors will be described. A session will be devoted to technical and diagnostic aspects of microparticle analysis by flow cytometry and alternative assays.

Maximum number of participants: 50  

Click HERE for the preliminary programme.

Course 4: Haemolytic disorders
Course Organisers: Rob Sutherland (Toronto, Canada) and Judith Chezar (Nahariya, Israel)

Haemolytic anemia – anemia due to the premature destruction of red blood cells may be due to intrinsic (hereditary) or extrinsic factors. This 2-day course is intended for practiced flow cytometrists who would like to learn more about the diagnosis and follow-up of red blood cell disorders currently assessed by flow cytometry.

Day 1 will focus on paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH): clinical aspects and guidelines formulated by International Clinical Cytometry Society (ICCS); high-sensitivity detection assays; development of stabilized materials for quality control; and guidelines and proficiency efforts by other groups/countries than ICCS.

Day 2 addresses red cell membrane defects (hereditary spherocytosis, elliptocytosis, and pyropoikilocytosis); fetomaternal hemorrhage (FMH) and adult F-cell detection; intrinsic red cell membrane defects; the role of oxidative stress in hemolytic anemias; and the benefits of flow cytometry over morphological assays for the enumeration of nucleated red blood cells.

On both days, multicolor panels for identifying pathological clones or cell populations will be demonstrated along with clinical cases discussions.

Maximum number of participants: 100 

Click HERE for the preliminary programme. 

Course 5: Leukemia/lymphoma immunophenotyping - Advanced Level

Course Organisers: Julia Almeida (Salamanca, Spain) and Maria Arroz (Lisbon, Portugal) 

This two-day course has been designed for the more experienced cytometrists; during the first day, new advances and strategies of immunophenotyping applied to the evaluation of minimal residual disease in hematological malignancies will be reviewed. On the second day, the course will focus on the contribution of multicolor flow cytometry to the study of complex / uncommon cases of leukemia and lymphoma. Practical exercises will include list mode data analyses of cases sent in advance to the participants; as a novelty in this course, practical cases will be presented in a more interactive way, using an interactive voting system.
Maximum number of participants: 150

Click HERE for the preliminary programme.