RE: Thanks to all who participated in the 2008 NW Regional Cytometry Meeting

Thanks to all who participated in the 2008 NW Regional Cytometry
Meeting, 'Flow and Imaging for an ~omics era'. Thanks to our plenary
speakers, J. Paul Robinson (Purdue), Peter Krutzik (Stanford), Dorothy
Lewis (Baylor), Ger van den Engh (Cytopeia), Ed Walker (EACRI,
Providence), Alan Waggoner (Carnegie Mellon), Mike Samuels (RainDance
Technologies), Jake Jacobberger (Case Western), Bob Murphy (Carnegie
Mellon), Bob Zucker (US EPA), Larry Sklar (University of New Mexico),
David Basiji (Amnis), Chris Geddes (University of Maryland), Iain
Johnson (Invitrogen), Mike Mancini (Baylor), Rick Monsma
(Schering-Plough), Ghislain Bonamy (Novaris Genomics Institute), and
Doug Auld (NIH Chemical Genomics). Thanks to speakers who participated
in parallel sessions, including vendor talks, including Bob Murphy, Ryan
Brinkman (BC Cancer Research Center), Shannon McWeeney (OHSU), Mark
Collins (Cellomics), Janet Siebert (CytoAnalytics), Richard Ozanich
(Pacific Northwest National Labs), O. M. Aliyu (Leibnz Institute for
Plant Genetics), Karen Helm (University of Colorado), Adam Treister
(Tree Star), Chisheng Huang (Chi-Squared Works), Christopher Bunker
(Cell Signaling Technology), Robert Balderas (BD), Robert Barrington
(Olympus Advalytix), Steve Jacques (OHSU BME), Dorothy Lewis, Chris
Harrington (OHSU Microarray core), Bob Zucker, Rick Monsma, Larry David
(OHSU Mass Spec core), Erik Sanchez (PSU), Doug Keene (Shriners
Hospital), Tania Vu (OHSU BME), Alan Waggoner, Jake Jacobberger, Peter
Krutzik, Chris Geddes, Iain Johnson, Larry Sklar, Arundeep Pradhan
(OHSU), Bob Monaghan (OTRADI), Lori Krueger (BD), Mark Munson (Verity),
Gayle Buller (Invitrogen), Jolene Bradford (Invitrogen), Matt Alexander
(Coulter), Jack T. Ball (Accuri), Scott Baldwin (CompuCyte), Fred Molnar
(iCyte), Rock Pulak (Union Biometrica), Larry Duckett (BD), Gil Reinin
(BD), Jim Borree (PerkinElmer), and Mark Collins (Cellomics). Thanks to
all who made FICCS4 a reality, including ISAC for providing support,
noon lunch, and coffee, as well as to Ryan Brinkman and Jim Wood (chair,
ISAC Data Standards Task Force) for organizing it, and speakers Janet
Siebert, Kevin Banks (Labkey), Errol Strain (BD), Florian Hahne (FHCRC),
Raphael Gottardo (UBC), Peter Krutzik, and Jim Wood. Thanks to Jack
Dunne (BD) for introducing speakers on Friday, and to Randy Smith (PSU)
for doing introductions on Saturday. Thanks to Dan Dorsa, OHSU VP for
Research for comments preceding the Friday buffet. Thanks to Sue
DeMaggio for again having organized an appropriate FloCyte course
'Intracellular Cytometry' in conjunction with the NWRCM. Thanks to Tony
Bakke (OHSU Pathology), Scott Reed (PSU Chemistry), and Dan Haley (EACRI
Providence) for judging posters - Congratulations to Makoto Yawato et
al. (Stanford) 'High-dimension cytometry to understand complex
mechanisms which structure diverse human NK cell repertoires of HLA
class I-specific inhibitory receptors' and Kayte Fichter et al.
(University of Cincinnati) 'Intracellular trafficking of polycationic
nucleic acid vectors' on having won $50 prizes provided by Cell
Signaling Technology for best posters.

Thanks to the 2008 NWRCM steering committee, Ryan Brinkman, Gayle
Buller, Dan Haley, Chris Harrington, Julie Hill (ZGI), Jeff King
(Virogenomics), Peter Rabinovitch (University of Washington), Scott
Reed, Erik Sanchez, and Randy Smith, for creative ideas and support,
particular thanks to Ryan Brinkman for organizing the ISAC-FICCS meeting
and to Peter Rabinovitch for his accessible 'sage advice'. 

Thanks to Oregon Hearing Research Center, with particular credit to
Peter Steyger (OHSU), OHSU, and the vendors who supported this meeting,
including BD Biosciences, Dako, Invitrogen, PerkinElmer/Evotec, Amnis
Corp., Cytopeia, Beckman Coulter, CompuCyte, TTPLabtech, Thermo Fisher
Scientific, Accelrys, Accuri Cytometers, Applied Cytometry Systems, Bay
Bioscience, BioLegend, Chi-Square Works, Cell Signaling Technology,
Cytek Development, De Novo Software, FloCyte Associates, Guava
Technologies, iCyt Mission Technology, Intellicyt, Miltenyi Biotec, MDS
Analytical Technologies, Olympus Advalytix, Partec, Phoenix Flow
Systems, StemCell Technologies, Tree Star, Union Biometrica, and Verity
Software House. Thanks to the many firms who brought equipment, though,
admittedly, the packed program was less than optimal for demos. In
addition to support in the form of table fees and demo equipment, firms
covered the expenses of many of the speakers: BD sponsored Rick Monsma,
Invitrogen sponsored Alan Waggoner and Iain Johnson, PerkinElmer
sponsored Ghislain Bonamy, Amnis sponsored David Basiji, Cytopeia
sponsored Ger van den Engh, CompuCyte sponsored Jake Jacobberger, TTP
Labtech sponsored Doug Auld, Accelrys sponsored Mike Mancini, FloCyte
Associates sponsored Dorothy Lewis, IntelliCyt sponsored Larry Sklar. 

Thanks to Coulter for sharing the expense of the Friday evening buffet,
picking up the tab on rental of the Kohler Pavilion terrace and
providing refreshments. Thanks to Accuri Cytometers for providing Friday
morning coffee. Thanks, as already mentioned, to Cell Signaling
Technology for providing best poster prizes. Thanks to Tree Star for
providing a number of free student registrations. Thanks to Gerri Lutes
(OHSU Protocol and Events) for having managed at least one 'impossible'
feat, and to Rachel Dresbeck, others in the office of the OHSU VP for
Research, and Bill Walters (OHSU) for publicity. Thanks to Jill Lilly
(OHSU OHRC) for accounting.

I could go on at Rabelesian length, with credits going on to include
Devereux Taylor (OHSU catering), and the wonderful job he did catering
this event, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Please don't feel
cheated out of a credit if you're not listed - any conspicuous absences
should be ascribed to my inability to circumscribe the particulars of
such a large scale event. 

The meeting was a cornucopia of information, too much frankly to
assimilate as 'efficiently' (packed) as the meeting was. I've asked
speakers whether they'd be willing to provide PDFs to persons, including
me, who wish to go through through the slides at a more reasonable pace.
Although there will be no general distribution, some of the talks will
be freely available, others not, while still others will be available
under agreement they not be further distributed. Contact me if you are
interested, and I can let you know what's available.

Thanks to all who made the meeting a fantastic couple of days - not
that there weren't things, including immutable partitions, we couldn't
have broached better. Please don't forget to send your feedback, to
underscore what worked, tweak or jettison what didn't, as well as give
notice of ideas, experiments, and technology that are changing cytometry
- all foundation material for next year. (Ideas matter, and they
probably matter more at the beginning, before a meeting is organized,
than mid-stream.) Thanks.

Allan Kachelmeier, 2008 NWRCM coordinator

Manager, confocal microscopy core
Oregon Hearing Research Center
OHSU