Flow Cytometry in Biomedical Research

Flow cytometry is widely used in basic and translational research for investigating cellular phenotypes and functions at the level of single cells. The course is intended to provide students with notions in the terminology, concepts and approaches used in flow cytometry applications, needed for initiating flow cytometric studies, and allowing a critical interpretation of published flow cytometry results. The course will illustrate basic principles of flow cytometry, experimental design and quality control, critical issues in the pre-analytical and analytical phase, experimental design in polychromatic immunophenotype and functional cytometry. Examples of flow cytometric approaches applied to biomedical investigation will be presented through scientific seminars. Practical training on the analysis of flow data will be provided, in order to enable students to analyze flow data and present high quality data for publications. Wet lab practical training, illustrating instrumentation handling, cell preparation and staining, data acquisition and analysis, will be offered to students who are new to flow cytometry.