The Role of Flow Cytometry in Drug Development: Highlights from the MetroFlow 2010 Fall Meeting
Author: Linda Trinkle; Published: Dec 11, 2010; Category: Drug Discovery, Flow Cytometry; Tags: Biomarkers, Small Molecule Screening, Target Validation, Toxicity; No Comments
Congratulations to Peter Lopez, president of MetroFlow, and all of the organizers who created a really strong educational program about current and potential future uses for flow cytometry in the area of drug development. The Fall MetroFlow meeting was hosted by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, located in Tarrytown, NY.
Virginia Litwin, Ph.D., from Covance moderated the program and began with an Introduction to the Role of Flow Cytometry in Drug Development. Virginia also gave a touching tribute to Phil Marder, who passed away earlier this year and will be missed by all of us who knew him. Phil and Virginia co-edited a book, Flow Cytometry in Drug Discovery and Development that was just published this month. Some of the contributors to the book presented at this meeting, providing additional insight into Biomarkers, Small Molecule Discovery and Oncology Drug Discovery.
The talks were organized to provide some insight into how flow cytometry is being used in the drug discovery process. Dimitris Skokos, Ph.D., from Regeneron, spoke on New Target Discovery, describing how combining multicolor flow cytometry with high-throughput genomic engineering has allowed them to characterize the full hematopoietic cell profile of genetically engineered mice lacking Delta-like ligand 4.
Addressing Target Validation, Carmen Raventos-Suarez, PhD., from Bristol Myers-Squibb, presented data which clearly illustrated how, using multicolor flow cytometry, “cells within discrete populations can be identified before and after treatment using cell cycle profiles and molecular markers, thus providing evidence that treatment is within a mechanism and modulating the signaling cascade.” And, on a personal note, I was happy to hear her report that she has found the HyperCyt to be a valuable tool in expediting their research.
Speaking on Small Molecule Discovery, Larry Sklar, Ph.D., from the University of New Mexico Center for Molecular Discovery, presented a number of examples of screening assays using the HyperCyt flow cytometry platform in his talk, “High-throughput Flow Cytometry, Small Molecule Discovery and the NIH Roadmap Molecular Libraries Initiative.” Larry also presented on grant opportunities that are available to researchers who want to collaborate on projects.
Pre-clinical Toxicology was discussed by Dave McFarland, from iCyte in: “The Search for a Biomarker of Drug-induced Vascular Injury.” He also spoke about flow cytometric analysis of blood and how it holds the potential to provide such a biomarker.
There were too many outstanding presentations at the Fall Meeting to discuss in this post, but they will all be available soon for you to view on the MetroFlow meeting archive page.