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How do you teach an old dog, new tricks, a musical instrument, and flow cytometry?
After a rather unproductive piano practice session, I was reflecting on the process of learning a musical instrument. It doesn’t seem to come naturally to an old dog! My strategy is perseverance and taking all the help I can get. Although I’m tempted to just struggle on in private, errors seem to creep in and bad habits develop. However, finding the right teacher can be difficult. I’m definitely not ready for lessons from a professional pianist. My ideal teacher is someone who is proficient, patient and understanding, but also demanding. Oh, and they need to be close by, have a flexible schedule, and not cost too much! However, help in learning a musical instrument doesn’t just come from a music teacher. I’ve received assistance from other students and experience from teaching those junior to me, not to mention support from friends and family. Indeed, I think you can probably learn something from anyone studying a musical instrument, even if they’re playing different tunes. I don’t know if you play a musical instrument, but I’m sure you’re a student of the cytometry instrument. Perhaps that’s not so different. Most of us practice alone, but it’s important not to become too isolated and develop bad habits. We can get help from many different sources, not just from experts, and there’s always something you can learn from other cytometrists even if they’re playing different tunes.
This issue of the ICCS eNewsletter has articles about several different flow cytometry tunes or applications. Paul Wallace, from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, reviews the use of multimer assays to quantitate CMV specific CD8+ T-cell responses in hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. You may not be offering that assay in your clinical laboratory right now, but it might be in your future repertoire, and the approach used in this assay overlaps that of other high-sensitivity cytometry assays. The same applies to the eCSI challenge provided by Jonathan Fromm, University of Washington, Seattle. I found that getting hands on experience with the fcs files Jonathan provided for download, gave me a much better understanding an assay that previously I had only read about.
The two technical tips articles in this issue of the eNewsletter are broadly applicable and contain lots of good advice. Natalie Walker from Wake Forest Baptist Health gives hints on how to prepare your laboratory for an inspection. Kristen Humphrey, along with Aileen Cinquino and Paul Wallace, from Roswell Park Cancer Institute describes the steps involved in developing and validating a new clinical panel, including antibody titration, cocktail preparation and validation. Send me an e-mail if you have technical tips to share.
Talking about making mistakes and developing bad habits, are you doing ISHAGE protocol correctly? Visit the ICCS website for the recently posted educational presentation entitled “Issues in CD34 Enumeration for Hematopoietic Stem Cells” by Mike Keeney and Rob Sutherland. In addition to their slide presentation, Mike and Rob have provided responses to frequently asked questions about this assay. This assay was also the subject of a recent publication in Cytometry Part B (Clinical Cytometry) 82B:9–17 (2012). Whitby A, Whitby, L, Fletcher F, Reilly JT, Sutherland RT, Keeney M, and Barnett D. ISHAGE Protocol: Are We Doing It Correctly?. The ISHAGE protocol is clearly the gold standard for CD34 enumeration, but only if it’s done correctly.
Fiona Craig (Editor)
your editor
craigfe@upmc.edu
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