Category Archives: News

Review: An introduction to automated flow cytometry gating tools and their implementation

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An introduction to automated flow cytometry gating tools and their implementation

Chris Verschoor, Alinia Lelic, Jonathan Bramson & Dawn ME Bowdish

Frontiers in Immunology
Front. Immunol., 27 July 2015 | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2015.00380

Current flow cytometry (FCM) reagents and instrumentation allow for the measurement of an unprecedented number of parameters for any given cell within a homogenous or heterogeneous population. While this provides a great deal of power for hypothesis testing, it also generates a vast amount of data, which is typically analyzed manually through a processing called “gating.” For large experiments, such as high-content screens, in which many parameters are measured, the time required for manual analysis as well as the technical variability inherent to manual gating can increase dramatically, even becoming prohibitive depending on the clinical or research goal. In the following article, we aim to provide the reader an overview of automated FCM analysis as well as an example of the implementation of FLOw Clustering without K, a tool that we consider accessible to researchers of all levels of computational expertise. In most cases, computational assistance methods are more reproducible and much faster than manual gating, and for some, also allow for the discovery of cellular populations that might not be expected or evident to the researcher. We urge any researcher who is planning or has previously performed large FCM experiments to consider implementing computational assistance into their analysis pipeline.

For access to the .pdf click here.

 

Manuscript: The evolution of the scavenger receptor cysteine-rich domain of the class A scavenger receptors

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Do you work out? Cause you’re built like a rock! A rock like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson! You have an impenetrable body thanks to your complex immune system. So how did you get such a sophisticated immune system?

In the Bowdish lab, we do more than just macrophage biology; we also study the evolution of the immune system! The scavenger receptors are a group of receptors that play an important role in your immune system by binding harmful bacteria. Our most recent publication by Yap et al., looks at how these receptors evolved and how evolution has changed their function. These receptors are found in various forms of life such as sharks, frogs, and mammals, but the function and appearance of these receptors has changed over time. Check out the open access….

The Bowdish lab has a new PhD student! Congrats Avee!

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Avee Naidoo successfully passed her transfer exam today. She now joins the ranks of Fan Fei, Mike Dorrington, Kyle Novakowski, Dessi Loukov, Sara Makaremi, and Pat Schenck as part of the Bowdish lab PhD posse. Well done Avee!

 

Avee-med

Becoming a PhD student in the Bowdish lab is a family affair. Junior lab members sent their favourite stuffie in to wish Avee luck. It must have worked as she aced it!Becoming a PhD student in the Bowdish lab is a family affair. Junior lab members sent their favourite stuffie in to wish Avee luck. It must have worked as she aced it!

...and a little lab humour. We have both skilled scientists (see picture at bottom) and skilled artists (see whiteboard) in our lab.

…and a little lab humour. We have both skilled scientists (see picture at bottom) and skilled artists (see whiteboard) in our lab.

The Bowdish lab attends the 14th Annual Buffalo Immunology Conference.

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This year our lab is taking the Buffalo Immunology Conference by storm!

Nick Yap (MSc candidate with Dr. Brian Golding) was chosen to give a talk “The evolution of the scavenger receptor cysteine-rich domain of the class A scavenger receptor family”. Dessi Loukov (PhD candidate) will be speaking on “MacrophAGING: The effects of chronic inflammation on macrophage anti-microbial immunity” . Dawn will be giving a talk on “The aging microbiome drives age‐associated
inflammation” while many other members of the team give poster presentations.

Drs Bowdish & Mossman attend the Bay Area Science & Engineering Fair

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Dr. Bowdish and Mossman attend the 2015 Bay Area Science & Engineering Fair as “Special Awards” judges. The IIDR awards a 6 week summer internship to the winner of the best senior project in human health, infection or disease. The winner gets to spend time in an IIDR lab doing real science. As always, the quality of the projects was high and choosing a winner was hard.

BASEF Judges

M.G.DeGroote Post-doctoral Fellowship applications – Deadline April 1st, 2015

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The Bowdish lab will support one applicant for a M.G. DeGroote Post-doctoral fellowship. Below is the information on the award but from past experience, applicants must have a strong publication record in high impact journals and have a clear track-record of accomplishments in a related research field. If you think you meet these criteria and would like Dr. Bowdish to consider putting you forward for this award, please contact her with a c.v.

The Michael G. DeGroote Fellowship Awards

The Michael G. DeGroote Fellowship Awards are an opportunity for excellent postdoctoral candidates to pursue top-level research training. First awarded in 2008, the awards provide funding to research-intensive individuals looking to further their academic career in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University.

Each award provides non-renewable funding of $50,000 for one year for successful applicants. The funding is comprised of $40,000 from the Michael G. DeGroote Health Sciences Development Fund and $10,000 contributed by the applicant’s supervisor.

Awards are available in two categories: the *Michael G. DeGroote Fellowship Award in Basic Biomedical Science* and the *Michael G. DeGroote Fellowship Award in Clinical Research*. Candidates conducting basic science research are eligible for the Basic Biomedical Science Fellowship Award and those pursuing clinical research are eligible for the Clinical Research Fellowship Award. Applicants must identify in their application which award they are applying for. Separate selection committees will review the respective applicants for each award.

Visit http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/mgdfa/and apply online. The deadline for applications is *April 1, 2015* with an estimated start date of July 1, 2015.

Eligibility

*Only candidates who are (a) external to McMaster, or (b) internal students who have yet to begin postdoctoral or health professional degree studies at McMaster, or (c) internal students who began their postdoctoral or health professional degree studies at McMaster no earlier than July 1, 2014, will be eligible for the awards.
* For candidates who hold (or are completing) a PhD, the proposed supervisor(s) listed in your application must be different than your PhD supervisor.
* Priority will be given to those applicants whose graduate training has not been exclusively at McMaster.

Expectations

It is expected that winning applicants will seek out and attain external funding within their one-year award term. Supervisors are expected to assist their candidates in doing so.

Further Information

For more information on the awards, please visit the awards website or
send any questions to mgdfa@mcmaster.ca.