Conferences and a Lab move!

Well, it's been a busy few months with two major conferences and now the start of the move to the new Crick building. June saw the annual CYTO Conference this year held in the Washington State Convention Centre in Seattle which was also the venue in 2010 (but this time we were not hampered by Icelandic volcanos!). I like Seattle, it has a laid-back vibe but has everything you need. The conference itself is really a must-attend for those in the Flow Core business - this is where we get to see the companies newer products as well as hear about cutting-edge cytometric developments from leaders in the field. Plus it's a great chance to interact with like-minded people and socialise.

This year saw a number of new machines on the market - the new Helios from Fluidigm which brings mass-cytometry to a wider audience; the simple, almost self-service sorter, the FACS Melody from Becton Dickinson, and the promise of a new 6 laser CytoFlex from Beckman Coulter. All technologies that will make our lives in the core easier and will expand the capabilities of cytometric systems. The exhibition side of CYTO meetings is always interesting, plenty of people who are willing to talk enthusiastically about their products but generally without the hard sell; many thanks to ISAC's Organising Committee for their hard work once again in putting on the meeting.

Another important feature of CYTO is the more informal sessions; the tutorials where experts give up their time to explain to newcomers the intricacies of hardware, sofware or specialist tecniques; the workshops where facilitators direct discussion on a particular topic - especially relevant this year were several workshops devoted specifically to Core Facility Management or working; and the CYTO innovation session, which I found incredibly engaging.

Of course CYTO isn't CYTO without a major closing night celebration and this year we closed the conference with drinks and buffet at the Seattle aquarium (no fish were harmed during the course of this party!).

After barely a month's recovery, we headed to Leeds for flowcytometryUK 2016. It may be a smaller affair but it was a great success. Over 180 delegates and exhibitors enjoyed nearly three days of presentations, workshops (both scientific and commercial), posters and an exhibition. This was co-organised by myself and Rachael Walker from the Babraham Institute along with support from the Royal Microscopical Society. We managed to attract a great line-up of speakers - ISAC President Paul Wallace, flow gurus Paul Robinson and Howard Shapiro, one of the founders of flow Lee Herzenberg (who was presented with an RMS Honorary Fellowship at the meeting) plus some of the UK's rising cyometry starts Jim Brewer, Muzz Haniffa and Wolf Reik.

And if that wasn't enough at the beginning of August we began our move into the now fully-built Francis Crick Institute. This will be the subject of a future blog when we have completed the move (we are going over three phases so we can keep work going at our new building and our legacy sites) but as a taster, here are a couple of pictures.

Looking out of the building to the East

The view from the Office and write-up area

Since we moved in there is no need for the PPE!