Spectral Flow Cytometry Symposium 2023

This year's Spectral Flow Cytometry Symposium has been designed to be highly interactive: delegates will have the opportunity to meet with academics and technical specialists from leading flow cytometry companies, listen to talks detailing the full spectral cytometry opportunities, experimental techniques and analysis methods associated with this cutting-edge technology, participate in workshops, and see a range of cutting-edge equipment offered by exhibiting companies.

Thanks to the unique set up at the Babraham Institute the organisers are able to offer interactive workshops on all commercially-released spectral flow cytometers (Apr 2023). Sessions will include panel design, instrument set-up, data analysis and presentation of data. This, combined with our internally-renown speakers makes this an unmissable experience for all flow cytometrists and those using cytometry as a research tool.

All delegate tickets will provide access to the Symposium BBQ that will take place on the evening of the 11th of July.

Tickets are for both days and your choice of four workshops (subject to availability).

Please note that bookings for the focused Symposium's workshops will be offered to registered delegates closer to the date.

Discounted tickets are available for academic staff, clinical centres, Facility Cores/Shared Resource Laboratories and Babraham Research Campus attendees.

Videos of talks from the Spectral Flow Cytometry Symposium 2022 are available here.

Please note: this year talks will not be filmed.

NEW for June 2023 ! Release of the Symposium's Workshops

All delegates are invited to attend four 90 minute workshops over the two days of the Symposium. Details of these sessions are provided below, and a link to select preferred demonstrations will be provided to delegates immediately after ticket registration on Eventbrite has been completed.

Delegates who do not select any workshops will be assigned to sessions. The organisers reserve the right to cancel sessions which attract less than 5 delegates. Workshop selection must be completed by delegates by the 27th June.

1. Cytek Aurora Analyser Workshop

Leads: Babraham Institute and Cytek

This workshop will guide attendees through the operation and data quality of the five laser Aurora Full Spectrum Analyser. A small panel will be run and show data from a 30+ parameter panel, including how to spot and troubleshoot spectral issues.

2. Cytek Aurora Cell Sorter Workshop

Leads: Babraham Institute and Cytek

The capabilities of the new Aurora Cell Sorter will be highlighted, including its abilities to transfer a panel from the Aurora analysers to the sorter for sorting of large panels.

3. Exploring the ID7000 world (Sony ID7000)

Leads: Dr Sophie Novault and Dr Sandrine Shumutz, the Institut Pasteur, Paris

Leveraging the full capability of the 184 fluorescent detector ID7000 requires a new “mindset” for running and analysing flow data. This workshop will cover the ID7000 workflow, basic operations, and autofluorescence subtraction tool.

4. Showcasing Spectral Sorting on the Bigfoot Sorter

Leads: Ms Yulia Chupalova, Babraham Institute and Dr Andrea Predonzani, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Workshop highlighting of the power of spectral cytometry for live unmixing samples ready for cell sorting, as well as other capabilities of the Bigfoot, such as the fast plate sorting.

5. BD FACSDiscover S8 (live interactive virtual workshop)

Lead: Uwe Speck, BD

Join this live interactive virtual BD FACSDiscover S8 workshop showcasing the spectral and imaging capabilities of this new instrument run by BD experts in Heidelberg and Babraham.

6. Autofluorescence Subtraction on the Aurora Full Spectrum Flow Cytometer

Lead: Dr Adam Davison, Cytek

Workshop guiding delegates through Cytek's handling of autofluorescent cells and new features to be released in SpectroFlo to help integrate this into your own experiment.

7. Wayposts in the Woods: Good Places to Start with Unsupervised Analysis

Lead: Geoff Kraker OMIQ/Dotmatics

As datasets get more complex, driven by advancements in instrumentation and reagents, cytometrists are using algorithmic tools to enable faster and deeper exploration. However, as the field is flooded with newer and more diverse algorithms, it can be difficult to know which ones to choose for a particular task and which settings to use once you have made your choice. Here we cover a summary of some of the most common algorithms and their relevant settings, with the intent of providing a baseline understanding of these tools.

8. High-dimensional data analysis

Lead: Mr David Novo, De Novo Research Inc.

There are many algorithms performing high dimensional data analysis on flow cytometry data. David Novo, creator of FCS Express, will provide an overview of the most common algorithms focusing on explaining the role of the user customizable parameters. He will then show you real world examples of the output from the different algorithms and how to validate/understand them.

9. Practical: Integrating R into your data analysis with VenturiOne

Leads: Tony Burpee, Applied Cytometry and Christopher Hall, Babraham institute

This will be held in the computer lab allowing you to participate.

As flow cytometry data has become more complex, utilization of simple NxN plots and gating has become more time consuming, furthermore multiple specific hierarchical gates run the risk of missing scientifically relevant populations via confirmation bias. R based algorithms have now been created to aid cluster definition. Additionally, R analysis goes beyond dimensionality reduction; it includes spectral unmixing, data cleaning, normalisation and much more. Tony and Chris will be showing how this is done in R as well as in CytoSwarm and VenturiOne which can greatly simplify R workflows and enable you to process them in the cloud, speeding you through your analysis.

10.Spectral Cytometry Data Analysis with FCS Express

Lead: Andrea Valle, Dotmatics

FCS Express has the capability of unmixing files, displaying spectral plots and running high-dimensional data analysis with appropriate data pre-processing, making it ideal for analyzing full spectral flow cytometry data. Andrea Valle will guide you through such an analysis, showcasing FCS Express’s spectral capabilities, high-dimensional data analysis pipelines and data exploration.

11. Panel Design

Lead: Dr Florian Mair, ETH Zürich

With full spectrum flow cytometers offering up to 184 fluorescent parameters, careful design of a panel is essential. Florian Mair will guide you through the approach and rules of panel design.

12. ‘Ask the Expert’ Panel Discussion

Join experts Derek Davies, Rachael Walker, Joanne Lannigan, Oliver Burton and Pratip Chattopadhyah to talk about all things spectral. The discussion will be led by you, so please tell us what you would like to discuss during this session!

This event is kindly sponsored by: