Prima Nexus flow cytometry workshops at UKM, UiTM and Universiti Malaya, March to May 2017

From the Prima Nexus archive: a look back at March to May 2017.

KUALA LUMPUR, 18 May 2017: On 18 May 2017, Prima Nexus and NOCERAL, the National Orthopaedic Centre of Excellence for Research and Learning at Universiti Malaya (UM), co-organised a one-day, hands-on workshop on cell cycle analysis by flow cytometry in Kuala Lumpur. In March, Prima Nexus had run a hands-on flow cytometry workshop at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), and a discussion session on flow cytometry and protein measurement at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in Sungai Buloh.

March: a workshop at UKM and a discussion at UiTM

The UKM workshop, in the Toxicology Lab of the Faculty of Pharmacy, was built around practice. A Prima Nexus representative and Kimmy Lai of the Prima Nexus life science team led it. A talk explained how a flow cytometer's fluidic, optical and electronic parts combine to analyse single cells. Participants then handled the pipettes, tubes and reagents themselves at the bench, and gathered around the laboratory's flow cytometer for a demonstration of the instrument and its software.

At UiTM, Surani Sukor, Nor Alia and a colleague from Prima Nexus led the session for UiTM researchers in a meeting room of the Faculty of Medicine. Surani Sukor's talk, Immunoassay guide: from ELISA to multiplex platform, went through the three basic steps of an ELISA and its four common formats, and the session also covered PrimePlex multiplex immunoassay, which measures many proteins in one sample, and flow cytometry.

May: cell cycle analysis at Universiti Malaya

NOCERAL, part of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine at UM, co-organised the May workshop, which ran from 8.30 am to 3.30 pm. The trainers were Assoc. Prof. Dr. H. Rao Balaji and a Prima Nexus representative. After a briefing, participants put on lab coats, masks and hair covers and moved into the laboratory, where they prepared samples at the bench, worked with pipettes and used the centrifuge. The workshop flyer also listed other uses of flow cytometry, from apoptosis and necrosis detection to mitochondrial membrane potential, oxidative stress markers, intracellular calcium and CD marker detection.

Prima Nexus's part

Prima Nexus organised the UKM workshop and the UiTM session and provided their trainers and speakers, and participants at both received a certificate from Prima Nexus. At Universiti Malaya it co-organised the workshop and provided one of the two trainers. More photos are on the event pages for UKM, UiTM and Universiti Malaya. Flow cytometry is one of the research services Prima Nexus offers today: see our research platforms.