9.00am – 4.00pm Monday through Friday

2024 Course now registering

3 Day Course cost $500.00 plus GST.  24 places available. 

5 day Course $1000 plus GST. 24 places available. Discount available for UBC researchers.

Due to the ever increasing interest in flow cytometry, we are hosting another 5 days course that will cover the basics through to multi-colour analysis.   It is aimed at people who are new to flow or the experience user moving into the multi parameter world.  wants a refresher.  We will start with the basics and get more complex to allow you to walk away feeling confident that you know what to do.

Topics and talk:

1. Cell proliferation, tracking and viability.
2. New dyes and fluorochrome chemistry
3. Panel design
4. Flowjo analysis
5. Instrument QC and validation
6. Compensation: manual vs auto with beads or cells
7. Cytof mass spectrometry and parallel technologies
8. Cell sorting

Each day will start with a talk and then move into the lab to play on the instruments in groups of 3.  We will start with a 4 colour panel and move onto a variety of 8-12 colour panels from different tissues; from bone marrow, spleen, thymus, to digested muscle and commercially available tubes.  The end of each day will be a chance to recap on the days activity.

Each day we will perform instrument QC, experiment set up and compensation on all samples.  On day 4 we will rotate around each instrument with the application specialist and cover a separate topic: cell cycle, whole blood, small particles, human blood, spectral analysis.

Minimum class size is 10, but I will open up 21-30 spaces depending on instruments available and provided by vendors.

Instruments:

BD LSRII, Thermo Attune, Beckman Cytoflex, Cytek Northern Lights, Novocyte Penteon. Hopefully we will get a few more instruments to play with.

Course:

• Small groups of 2-3 per instrument working through challenges.
• Instrument maintenance, trouble shooting and general up keep.
• QC choices and keeping standards high day after day.
• BD Aria, Influx and Cytek SRT for sorting.
• Compensation 6+ colours
• Complex analysis and gating controls prior to sorting
• Cell sorting into plates, tubes and micro-tubes.

For the past ten years, the UBC FLOW facility has been running advanced flow cytometry courses for various research networks across Canada; for example, the Stem Cell Network and Allergen Network. We opened the course up to all students across Canada and the world.  During the advanced flow cytometry course, we provide instruction on the necessary techniques and skills to enable students to move comfortably to the next level.

Course Agenda: Day 1

• Flow talk basics, so we all know what we are talking about.
• Rotation from Attune, Cytoflex and BD instruments to calibrate and QC using spherotec 8 peak beads and CST beads..
• Manual compensation, from auto to manual and when it is correct to adjust.
• Six colour sample to get you familiar with the systems; spleen, bone marrow or thymus. Rotation through 3 different softwares.

Course Agenda: Day 2

• Panel design talk, the fundamentals to a good panel: Julie Hill Cytek
• QC of systems to check that they are optimized for our colours.
• Six colour panel with FMOs: a story you need to work through to find your population in bone marrow, spleen and thymus
• Attune Imaging flow cytometry talk:
• 10 colour complicated gating strategy
• Flowjo analysis: from acquisition to publication.

Course Agenda: Day 3

• Spectral flow cytometry talk: Andr4ew Lister Cytek
• Vial cell PBMCs 8 colour comp panel
• Muscle digest: the worst sample that you will work with!

Course Agenda: Day4

• Rotating through the technologies.
  • Cell sorting using the Cytoflex SRT
  • Cell analysis and imaging with the Attune Pix
  • Taking the panel from 8 to 18 colours using Cyteks Spectral flow

Course Agenda: Day5

• Challenges.
  • Analysis of small particles, beads and platelets.
  • 4 way cell sorting
  • Cell cycle and proliferation analysis
  • Very bright GFP or mCherry issues
  • Viability dyes