Flow Contract Site Laboratory

12/24/2020

Happy Holidays from FCSL! This year a few members of our staff competed in a Christmas Sweater competition. Who do you think won?

10/23/2020

We are hiring a new manager/ scientist
Job Description: Provide support and manage all functions of flow cytometry scheduling, processing, acquisition, analysis and reporting for preclinical and/or clinical development within a Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) environment.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities: Managerial Serves as a liaison between staff and test site management. Scheduling and delegating of day to day laboratory activity to provide smooth workflow during the day. Maintain staff by helping to recruit, select and train new employees. Communication with employees on job expectations, daily activities, enforcing SOPs, policies, procedures and productivity standards Scientific. Be able to take on own projects for flow cytometry processing, acquisition, analysis and reporting Scientific Review, QC and verification of flow cytometry data and/or maintenance records. Help maintain reagent inventory and placing orders for needed materials. Laboratory maintenance including preparation of various solutions, cleaning and re-stocking of laboratory, archiving of study and/or maintenance records. Troubleshooting of data and various pieces of equipment Communication with scientific colleagues via email, face-to-face or phone. Work in a team-oriented environment as well as independently. Familiarity with current scientific literature, prepare data for poster or oral presentations, attend scientific meetings when appropriate. Be able to follow signed protocols and standard operating procedures. Write standard operating procedures and study reports. Adhere to regulatory requirements
Qualifications and Requirements: PhD in a life science field with 5-10 years of hands on flow cytometry experience required and 5+ year managerial experience requiredFamiliar with BD FACSDiva, BD FACS Canto Flow Cytometer Instrumentation, FlowJo and Microsoft Office required. Experience in a Good Laboratory Practice and/or Clinical Research environment beneficial but not required. Good oral communication skills, multi-taking and detail oriented. Team player attitude required M-F normal business hours, flexibility to work after hours and weekends.
Job Type: Full-time
Benefits:Dental insurance, Health insurance, Paid time off and Vision insurance
Schedule:Monday to FridayWeekends
Experience:Flow Cytometry: 5 years (Preferred)
Education:Doctorate (Preferred)
Work authorization:United States (Required)Application
Question:Are you currently performing flow cytometry testing in the laboratory?

If you are interested please respond to [email protected]

12/24/2019

Happy Holidays from FCSL!
Wishing you a joyful Holiday Season, and the very best in 2020.
Here’s to another year of great science!

Warmest Regards,
Lynette & Jennifer
https://fcslaboratory.com/

10/31/2019

Last year, Science magazine published an article on Ghost Cytometry that resulted in a lot of commentary. Ghost Cytometry has the ability to classify cells based on size and shape, and does not rely on molecular markers to identify the cell type. Instead, Ghost Cytometry uses spacial information on labeled cells as they move across static light structure. Ghost Cytometry also has the potential to identify cancer cells from healthy cells based on morphology, rather than molecular markers, and has several other advantages over conventional flow cytometry, although the scientific debate continues.
To learn more about Ghost Cytometry, see our latest blog on our website:
A Ghastly Overview of Ghost Cytometry
By Jessica Roth and Hillary Reif
https://fcslaboratory.com/

Happy Halloween!
Lynette & Jennifer

10/21/2019

"Technology Obsolescence" is a term flow cytometrists don't like to hear, as it usually means that a favorite flow cytometer, it's parts and service contracts, are being discontinued. We find ourselves caught in a bind: owning a cytometer that is reliable and dependable, but now obsolete, and the cost of replacing it simply out of reach. To learn more about how a grassroots movement on the Flow Cytometry Users group, [email protected], influenced a major manufacturer of cytometers to postpone the retirement of a favored cytometer, see our latest blog on our website:

Technology Obsolescence:
Balancing rapidly evolving technology with financial reality, or in other words,
“please don’t tell me my big fancy machine is obsolete"

https://fcslaboratory.com/

Warm regards,
Lynette & Jennifer

We provide flow cytometry testing services in support of clinical trials, nonclinical studies, toxicology assessments, research and the evaluation of flow cytometric products.

10/09/2019

FCSL would like to announce the following:

The Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) Guideline for the Validation of Assays Performed by Flow Cytometry, H62 1st Edition is now available for public review and comment
To request a copy, please send an email to [email protected] as instructed on the CLSI website (https://clsi.org/standards-development/documents-for-public-review/). Electronic versions of the document, and detailed instructions for providing comments, will be provided to everyone submitting a request. The comment period will end on 18 Nov 2019.
The review and comment period provides an opportunity for the public to offer input on the draft document. At the end of the review/comment period, the H62 document development committee is required to review and provide responses to all comments received and revise the draft document as appropriate.

Your feedback on the draft document will help make the final version stronger.
Please contribute to this important initiative for the Flow Cytometry Community.

Thank you!
Lynette & Jennifer
https://fcslaboratory.com/

CLSI follows a consensus process to preserve the integrity of its standards development. Browse our draft documents for public review and share comments.

09/30/2019

Although FCSL is not attending, we would like to highlight the International Clinical Cytometry Society's (ICCS) 34th annual meeting October 4-8 2019 in Atlanta Georgia. The 2019 program features relevant courses and poster sessions, and is designed for Physicians, Laboratory Directors, Laboratory Mangers and Medical Technologists.
The goals of the meeting are to help participants increase their knowledge of the current flow cytometry tools and technologies available for patient sample analysis, and the current benchmarks used for patient sample analysis, diagnosis and assay validation.
For more information, please go to our website to read our latest newsletter:
https://fcslaboratory.com/

09/18/2019

Flow Contract Site Laboratory is celebrating its 10th Anniversary!
It has been an amazing journey! FCSL was founded by Lynette Brown and Jennifer J. Stewart on September 1st, 2009, in Kirkland, Washington. Fast forward 10 years, we occupy a beautifully custom designed lab and office space in Bothell, WA.
Starting with a narrow goal focusing on NHP TBNK samples, we have been exposed to many more types of projects then we could ever have imagined. We are honored to have been able to impart our expertise to the field of flow cytometry via our website, publications, presentations at meetings, and representation on industry spanning committees.
FCSL thanks all its past and current clients in helping us to achieve this memorable milestone. We look forward to continued collaborations and mutual success over the next decade.
It’s been an amazing 10 years! Join us in this celebration!
Warm Regards,
Lynette & Jennifer
www.fcslaboratory.com

09/03/2019

T cell exhaustion is a state of dysfunction that arises during chronic infection and cancer. Exhaustion is defined by poor effector function, the sustained expression of multiple inhibitory receptors (IR, including PD-1, CTLA-4, LAG3, TIM3, TIGIT, CD244, CD160 and others), reduced proliferative capacity, and an altered transcriptome that is distinct from that of functional effector or memory T cells. Reviving exhausted T cells holds much therapeutic promise, especially for patients with cancer. The combined blockade of PD-1 and other IR is a current focus of numerous drug development programs. Flow cytometry plays a crucial role in this process, and is used to both identify Exhausted T cells, and to monitor immunotherapies that target their IR.
Want to learn more?
Check out our latest blog on our website:
Exhausted T Cells
Warm regards,
Lynette & Jennifer
www.fcslaboratory.com

08/22/2019

Although FCSL is not attending, we would like to highlight the following meeting.

Bispecific Antibody Congress, August 20-22, 2019
Washington, DC

Bispecific antibodies continue to show significant and impressive therapeutic value. While the development of bispecific antibodies is an evolving field, many challenges are still awaiting to be solved by experts in the field including target selection, better understanding of their mechanism of action, along with the combination selection of targets. This second annual Bispecific Antibody Design conference will delve directly into the technical challenges of bispecific development to improve your candidates’ translatability into the clinic.
Included in these sessions are topics on

Clinical progress for bispecifics and combinations
Understanding the Biology for Enhanced Safety and Efficacy
Case studies
Immunogenicity and Pharmacology Considerations
Engineerng innovations for Bi and Multi-Specific Platforms
T-Cell Engagers

Speakers from AX, Genentech, Regeneron, Abbvie, Roche, Amgen, and Zymeworks, AstraZeneca.



For more information: http://www.giiconference.com/chi778137/bispecific-antibody-design.shtml

08/01/2019

Understanding how cells respond to drugs and other external stimuli is an important part of the drug development process. Flow cytometry is used for monitoring cell surface and intra-cellular proteins, and recent advances make it possible to monitor mRNA by flow as well. This is very important since the dynamics of translation and protein expression can be transient; especially true for cytokines, where increased mRNA does not always correlate with protein expression. FCSL has developed an assay using the PrimeFlow (TM) technology to detect cytokine mRNA in frozen human PBMC samples (IL-2 and IFN-γ). This assay is ideal for clinical samples, where PBMCs from multiple time points can be isolated, frozen, and later processed for mRNA in a single assay, reducing variability.
Want to learn more?
Check out our latest blog on our website:
Lost in Translation: Detection of mRNA by Flow Cytometry
http://www.fcslaboratory.com/

07/18/2019

We just returned from a successful CYTO2019 meeting!
CYTO is the premier meeting for showcasing the state of the art and science of cytometry. We had the opportunity to network, and hear cutting edge talks in the field. Highlights of CYTO2019 included sessions on extracellular vesicles (EV), cell therapies, automated gating, infectious disease, immunotherapies, and the Robert Hooke Lecture given by Dr. Irv Weissman (Stanford), on Normal and Neoplastic Stem Cells.
FCSL also presented two very well-received posters on Assessing Innate Immune Cell Function using Flow Cytometry, and the Detection of Cytokine mRNA in Stimulated Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells using Flow Cytometry.
FCSL is a contract flow cytometry lab supporting all phases of the drug development process. If you are interested in learning more about us, or would like a copy of our posters and/or other literature, please contact us.
http://www.fcslaboratory.com/