Highlights from 2008 ISAC Meeting

Qdot Nanocrystals

• The new fluorochromes of choice at the ISAC meeting
• Brightness coupled with long-term photostability
• Broad excitation and narrow, symmetric emission properties
• Now available from Invitrogen in antibody conjugation kits or streptavidin conjugates

Tracking Immune Cell Function and Proliferation

Workshop lead by PK Wallace and KA Muirhead to share "tricks of the trade" concerning cell tracking procedures, subsets, cytokines, and proliferation.  Ask and we'll give you a copy.

FRET

Janos Szollosi hosted a workshop (Hitchhiker's Guide to FRET).  Janos presented the essence of recently published Cytometry paper on three Chromophore FRET. He discussed methods for FRET analysis plus many examples of FRET applications.  Ask for a copy.

Phagocytosis

The biggest problem with phagocytosis experiments is assessing if target particles are inside the cell or on the cell surface.  Both conditions would exhibit positive fluoresence.  Molecular Probes' pHrodo dye fluoresces only in acidic environments (phagosomes) eliminating the need for wash or quenching steps.

Plant Flow Cytometry

J Dolezel and D Galbraith presented a workshop (Plant Genome Structure and Gene Expression) which reviewed current techniques in plant flow cytometry.  This included chromosome sorting for physical genome mapping and gene cloning,and global analysis of gene expression. The Flower website contains an excellent database for plant genome listings. This website also highlights a new book, Flow Cytometry with Plant Cells, by Dolezel and Greihuber.