About the Speaker

Kylie Price
Chief Technology Officer
New Castle University
Malaghan Institute of Medical Research

Kylie Price is the Chief Technology Officer at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research with 20 years’ experience providing strategic, scientific, and operational direction in multidisciplinary environments.  Kylie has strong stakeholder management and engagement skills and has attracted more than $35m of philanthropic funding over the past 12 years, supporting the creation of a distinguished centre of research excellence, the Hugh Green Cytometry Centre (HGCC).  Kylie leads a team of twelve highly skilled staff scientists in providing support to over 90 scientists at the Malaghan Institute.  The HGCC provides access to cutting-edge technology platforms (including full spectrum flow cytometry, histology, bioimaging, data science, molecular biology and mRNA for pre-clinical vaccine development), and she advises multiple research groups and companies both nationally and abroad. Kylie also has a strong leadership track-record, organising high-profile networking events, such as CYTOAsia Singapore 2017, and directing international organisations, such as the Australasian Cytometry Society of which she is former President (2015-2016).  Kylie is a two-time NZ Woman of Influence Awards (2014 and 2018) finalist and finalist of the 2021 NZ High Tech Awards.  She was the first New Zealander elected to the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) Council (2018-2020) and is currently serving as Chair of the Governance Committee and Secretary of ISAC (2020-2024).  In April 2023 Kylie was selected to join the NZ OnBoard Program and is currently a board observer for Orbis Diagnostics.

Webinar Summary

This webinar will cover an overview of Kylie’s career path and provide examples of how she promotes equity, employee engagement and participation within her team.  She will cover the SRL Career Progression Framework she developed with others at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research and discuss how she encourages the appropriate recognition of SRLs and SRL staff scientists in publication. There will be a Q+A session and we hope for lots of questions and engagement.

Learning Objectives

1. New ideas for how to increase SRL staff engagement and participation 
2. A guideline to follow for the appropriate recognition of SRLs and SRL staff scientists in publication
3. An example of a non-traditional career path to Chief Technology Officer
4. Strategies for promoting equity in the workplace

Who Should Attend: Scientists who manage teams (PIs, researchers, SRL managers), SRL staff scientists, women in STEM, scientists interested in topics related to equity and inclusion.

CMLE Credit: 1.0

Veronica Nash, PhD
US Regional Head of Flow Cytometry
Cerba Research

Veronica earned her B.Sc and M.Sc in Medical Biotechnologies from “Tor Vergata” and from “Sapienza” University, respectively, in Rome, Italy. She continued her training at Ghent University, Belgium where she received her PhD in Medical Sciences. After her PhD, she joined Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in NYC where she leveraged her knowledge in virology and immunology with her Flow Cytometry expertise to identify host cofactors in the immune cell which are involved in HIV and HTLV infection. Afterwards, she moved to Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, and as a staff scientist she optimized a Flow Cytometry method to identify protein mutants to be used as a target in precision medicine for Cystic Fibrosis. Veronica’s career in industry started at Wuxi Apptec where she developed Flow Cytometry assays for QC of drug therapy products, such as CAR-T cells and TILs. Then she joined Labcorp Drug development (Covance) as a staff scientist where she focused on Flow cytometry assay validation, data review and instrument implementation. Currently, as the US Regional Head of Flow Cytometry department at Cerba Research, she is the scientific lead for high-parameters Flow Cytometry; in the last year, she led a global team through the implementation and harmonization of Cytek Aurora instruments across multiple sites. Veronica is also an active member of ISAC and ICCS; currently she is the leader of a working group which aims at promoting CLSI H62 guidelines education within the Flow Cytometry community.

Tania Nevers
Senior Principal Scientist
Bristol Myers and Squibb

Tania earned her B.Sc and M.Sc in Biology from St John’s University, Queens NY before receiving her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from Brown University in Providence, RI. Following her Ph.D., Tania pursued a postdoctoral training at Tuft’s University where her work combined areas of immunology, vascular biology and cardiac physiology to study several aspects of adaptive immunity in diverse inflammatory settings. She then moved on to a Contract Research Organization, Flowmetric Inc, where she served as a  Scientist and then Project Manager. Her primary responsibility was to design, review and execute complex flow cytometry experiments in both preclinical and clinical studies for client sponsored projects. She then transitioned to the large Pharmaceutical Industry where she currently resides as a Senior Principal Scientist at Bristol Myers and Squibb. She primarily works on high order assay development, validation and implementation, and is the subject matter expert for Cytek Aurora implementation across BMS, including integration and harmonization activities.   

When not at work, Tania enjoys spending quality time with family as well as listening to music, dancing and gardening. 

About the webinar:

The use of Spectral Flow Cytometry allows for a deeper characterization of immune subsets (immune profiling) than conventional flow cytometry and is more valuable with limited patient samples in biomarker discovery in drug development. This webinar describes how to implement and standardize Cytek Aurora instruments and how to design, develop, and validate 30+ parameters panels that can be successfully utilized in clinical trials.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to implement and standardize Cytek Aurora instruments
• Understand how to validate an assay for 30+ colors on a spectral instrument to use in clinical trials
• Learn solutions on challenges such as reference controls, unmixing strategies and experimental sept up when implementing a high-parameter assay for global clinical trials 

CMLE Credit: 1.0

Evan Jellison
Associate Professor & Director of Flow Cytometry
UCONN School of Medicine

Kristen Reifel
Vaccine Research Center
NIAID/NIH

Benjamin Fontes, MPH, CBSP
Biosafety Officer
Yale University Environmental Health & Safety

Avrill Aspland
Operations Coordinator
Sydney Cytometry

About the webinar:

This webinar will be an open discussion with members of the ISAC Biosafety Committee to share experiences of biosafety and how we work to seek continual improvements in our shared resource laboratories.  We will discuss the strategies we use to identify priorities, initiate improvements, and embed new ways of doing things.  We will also respond to biosafety-related questions submitted through a pre-webinar survey and to questions and comments submitted in real time through a live Q&A. Please complete the pre-webinar survey sent to your email!

CMLE Credit: 1.0

A Basic Introduction to the Science of Cell Sorting By Matthew Goff

About the Presenter

Matthew Goff
Senior Product Manager, Flow Cytometry
Beckman Coulter Life Science

Matthew began his career in flow cytometry doing graduate research at Virginia Tech followed by his role as a core lab manager at Eastern Virginia Medical School. After leaving EVMS for industry, Matthew stayed close to flow cytometry supporting researchers and industrial scientists in flow cytometry with reagents, software, and hardware products. In 2021 he became a commercial product manager at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences where his work is focused on sustaining the CytoFLEX Platform and launching new products. 

Webinar Summary
This webinar introduces scientists with an interest in learning more about flow cytometry an introduction to the mechanics of cell sorting, best practices when sorting cells and contemporary discussion topic associated with cell sorting.

CMLE Credit: 1.0

Speaker: Landra Lewis

Landra draws upon her Native American heritage to find and foster unity and harmony in the world. Through her past work in politics, as a CEO, and as a promoter of the arts, her focus has ever been upon a vision of a better world. In recent years, her work has been concentrated upon creating peace and justice through the full body, mind, and spirit development of individuals and organizations, including integration of the arts, with emphasis on compassion.

She teaches workshops and does public speaking on a range of topics, including Appalachian culture, strategic communication, Native American heritage and culture, conflict resolution, and personal/career development. Landra has a BA in political science and philosophy from the University of Kentucky, and a certificate in conflict resolution from Duke University. She is also a certified Myers Briggs Personality Type assessor, and a certified clinical hypnotist.

About the Training:

This training will foster awareness about different types of diversity, appreciating differences, eliminate unconscious biases, and provide knowledge and strategies to enhance interpersonal and communication skills to help build a positive environment.

CMLE Credit: 1.0

Should CYTO Women Go with the Flow? By Virginia Litwin

About the Presenter

Virginia Litwin
Scientist
Charles River Labs

Virginia Litwin is a thought-leader in validation and standardization for flow cytometry. Bringing “Cytometry from Bench-to-Bedside” has been the focus of her professional activities since 1999 when she started working in translational medicine at Bristol-Myers Squibb. 

She co-founded the Flow Cytometry Community within the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS). This group published the first papers on flow cytometry method and instrument validation. She was a counselor for the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) and the International Clinical Cytometry Society (ICCS). She serves on the ICCS Advocacy Committee whose mission is to interface with regulatory agencies and has been an invited speaker at FDA/NIST on many occasions.

Virginia is the chair of the Document Development Committee for the guidance document, CLSI H62- The Validation of Assays Performed by Flow Cytometry. She edited the book, Flow Cytometry in Drug Discovery and Development, as well as journal special issues: JIM- Flow Cytometry Biomarkers and Translational Medicine (2011); Cytometry Part B- Receptor Occupancy (2015); Cytometry Part B- Cytometry Advancing Next Generation Drug Development (2021).

After obtaining a Ph.D. in Virology/Immunology from the University of Iowa, Virginia joined Lewis Lanier at DNAX as a post-doctoral fellow where she identified the KIR receptor, KIR3DL1 (CD158E1). She has held leadership roles in several contract research organizations. Currently she is a Research Scientist at Charles River Laboratories in Québec, Canada.

Webinar Summary

This webinar will review a wide variety of topics which impact the careers of CYTO Women. The importance of both being a Mentor and a Mentee will be reviewed. Case studies of how Sponsorship can impact an individual career and CYTO Women in general will be presented. Lastly, we will discuss how and when to change the things we cannot accept. Most of the webinar will be Q&A and hopefully a very lively discussion.

CMLE Credit: 1.0

Radioactivity and Flow Cytometry by Dagna Sheerar & Kathryn Fox

About the Presenter

Dagna Sheerar
Flow Cytometry Director
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Carbone Cancer Center Flow Cytometry Laboratory

Dagna Sheerar, SCYM(ASCP)^CM, has been working in flow cytometry shared resource laboratories for over 20 years and is currently the director of the Flow Cytometry Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin - Madison Carbone Cancer Center (UWFlow).  UWFlow is a busy core with a staff of 7 full time flow cytometrists, including Dagna, with 2 core laboratory locations on campus.  Dagna’s areas of interest are core administration and management, rigor and reproducibility, and user education. Since becoming director, Dagna has successfully added, on average, one instrument per year to the Flow Lab through various grant programs, institutional purchases, or “crowd funding.” Dagna has been involved in the Great Lakes International Imaging and Flow Cytometry Association (GLIIFCA) for almost as long as she has been working in cores, and she recently served as GLIIFCA president from 2020-2021 and currently serves on their Board of Directors. She is a member of ISAC and serves on the SRL Content Task Force. She serves as host, organizer, and instructor for the Annual Course in Cytometry, and recently completed the 45^th Annual Course held at the University of Wisconsin in June of 2022. Dagna has presented at GLIIFCA, the annual CYTO Meeting, and the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facility (ABRF) annual meetings. Dagna also served as the Interim Director of Campus Research Cores at UW – Madison in 2020.  

Kathryn Fox
Flow Lab Technical Manager
University of Wisconsin
Carbone Cancer Center Flow Cytometry Laboratory

Kathryn Fox, SCYM(ASCP)CM, is currently the technical manager of the Flow Cytometry Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin - Madison Carbone Cancer Center (UWFlow). She has been working for the UW Carbone Cancer Center Flow Cytometry Core Laboratory since 2015. Her flow cytometry interests include digging around inside instruments, any application that involves staining DNA, and being surprised by interesting new projects brought forward by the core’s diverse user base. Kathryn graduated from Iowa State University with a BS in Biology and then from the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a PhD in Cancer Biology. She was first introduced to flow cytometry in graduate school, but her main focus at that time was fluorescence microscopy. After graduate school, she worked as an applications scientist in multiphoton microscopy. Since diving into flow cytometry, Kathryn has been an active participant in GLIIFCA and the Annual Course in Cytometry, and finally got to attend her first in-person CYTO in 2022. 

Webinar Summary

This seminar will focus on how a flow core can respond to the needs of researchers to analyze radiotherapy treated samples in real time via flow cytometry.  We will present our process for providing this service from the initial idea, partnering with our Small Animal Imaging and Radiotherapy Facility, working with our institutional Radiation Safety group to test various cleaning methods for removing radioactive particles from the instrument post-analysis, instrument modifications, working with the original equipment manufacturer to ensure compliance with our existing service contract and safety for the engineers servicing the equipment, and additional safety measures and training procedures developed specific to this service.

CMLE Credit: 1.0

Speakers: 

Ross Burton

Simone Cuff

Andreas Artemiou

Matthias Eberl

CMLE Credit: 1.0

Speakers: 

Maik Herbig

Akihiro  Isozaki

Jeffrey Harmon

Keisuke  Goda

CMLE Credit: 1.0

Speakers: 

Eric Diebold

BD CellView Team

CMLE Credit: 1.0