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Report on The First Edition of the International Summer School on Cytometry

The ESCCA’s International Sumer School on Cytometry (ISSC) is currently running at the University of Valencia, Spain. ISSC includes the Courses “Basic Flow Cytometry” and “Functional Cytomics in Clinical and Translational Applications” (held in parallel from July 8 to July 13) and “Clinical and Translational Applications of Cytometry” and “Advanced Applications of Cytometry in Hematology” (running in parallel from July 15 to July 20).

In the Course “Basic Flow Cytometry”, students have been guided through all the steps in the operation and maintenance of flow cytometers from the very beginning on how to turn on for first time an instrument to the top step of how to run a Cytometry Core Facility. All the physical and electronic bases of flow cytometry and cell sorting, as well as the procedures for generation, standardization and harmonization, management and interpretation of data have been exposed in theoretical lectures and practically shown in wet lab practicals and computer room exercices. Students were actually operating the several flow cytometers available for the Course and they even performed a remote-controlled cell sorting via internet connexion with the Cytometry Core Facility of the Gulbenkian Institute in Portugal (thanks Rui Gardner for your collaboration!). In the Course “Functional Cytomics in Clinical and Translational Applications”, the more relevant applications of flow and image on biomedical sciences have been presented in theoretical lectures by experts and many different practical protocols have been run in the wet lab by students. Thus, hands-on experiments have allowed students to become familiar with highly demanded techniques for surface- and intracellular immunophenotyping, cell cycle and cell proliferation analysis, dynamic assays of cellular biochemistry, studies on cell death. Students have worked on different types of basic and clinical samples, and have been exposed to the most advanced technology in the field of cytometry, including 10-color flow cytometers and image-in flow cytometers. In the Course on “Clinical and Translational Applications of Cytometry”, a complete panoramic of the current areas of interest in clinical and biomedical research has been presented to the students. Diagnostic and prognostic applications of cytometry in Immunology, Hematology, Oncology, Blood Banking and Hemostasis have been approached by experts in clinical cytometry. Preclinical and translational applications of cytometry in crucial and novel fields of biomedicine, such as Microbiology, Stem Cells and Cell therapy, Circulating tumor cells and microvesicles, or Drug Safety assessment have been presented by researchers. This basic knowledge has been complemented by wetlab practicals and computer room exercices. Finally, in the Course on “Advanced Applications of Cytometry in Hematology” students have been offered a panoramic overview of the current applications of cytometry in this large field, including Onco-hematology, Blood banking, Thrombosis and Hemostasis, and Paroxysmic nocturnal Haemoglobinuria. Special attention has been paid to work in the wet lab with special samples and to perform functional studies of platelets. Also, each presentation of a particular pathology has been completed by guided exercices to diagnosis, by interpretating listmode files provided by teachers from real cases of their clinical practice.

Students in each Course have received a pendrive with all the contents of the Courses, including PDF copies of the theoretical lectures and supplemental materials provided by each speaker, listmode files and pubic-domain software for exercises and practical protocols that can be implemented in the students laboratory. The ISSC has been sponsored by several ESCCA Industrial Partners, and we thank Miltenyi Biotec, Beckman Coulter, EXBio, Life Technologies, Chemunotec, Labclinics, Thermofisher, Celeromics and Sartorius Stedim Biotech for their help in sponsoring students, providing instruments and reagents and, even, delivering scientific talks in Technical Workshops.

Each Course included a welcome informal dinner and several get-together times in which students from both parallel Courses were intended to mix and interact. This was further enhanced by the fact that most student and teacher were staying at the same university Residence provided by the ISSC. Finally, each Friday has ended in a Gala Dinner, in which typical Valencian food and ambiance was transformed into after-hours dancing and enjoying Valencia nightlife! By José-Enrique O’Connor and Claude Lambert ISSC Coordinators