Training Courses

At the SickKids-UHN FCF, we are committed to implementing best practices in the field and ensuring that our clients have the requisite technical knowledge and tools to generate high quality, reproducible data.

We offer online and hands-on training courses for clients to broaden their flow cytometry knowledge and/or operate our instruments independently.

The WORK-FLOW educational program is an online, on-demand streamlined program. The courses are delivered as subtitled video-based micro-content and simulation and can be completed in 2-3 h (total).

  • Flow Cytometry Essentials (FCE) provides a comprehensive introduction to the basic principles and concepts of flow cytometry:
    • Section 1: Principles & Instrumentation
    • Section 2: Reagents & Panel Design
    • Section 3: Acquisition & Measurements
    • Section 4: Analysis (with Interactive Tools)
    • Section 5: Statistics
  • Cytometry Select (CS) covers speciality, advanced topics:
    • CS1: Cell Sorting

The FCE and CS1 courses are a pre-requisite for all new clients to use our cell sorting services.

The FCE course is a pre-requisite for clients who want to take our Analyzer Training Course to operate our analytical instruments independently.

To access the courses, submit a WORK-FLOW “Flow Cytometry Essentials” Online Course Request (listed under the Training Services category) in iLab.

  • WORK-FLOW offers life-time access to both courses, in addition to other educational resources in the Flow Hub.

Clients who complete our Analyzer Training Course will be endowed with the expertise to operate our analytical instruments independently. In addition to teaching the basics of instrument start-up & shutdown, this intensive course outlines current best practices for optimizing instrument set-up to ensure precision, accuracy and reproducibility in your data acquisition.

  • To reflect our new suite of analytical instruments, the course is now known as Flow Cytometry Analyzer Training Course (formerly LSR Training Course)
  • This course is intended for clients who plan to independently operate our analyzers frequently (at least twice/month)
  • An “intention to use our resources” is now codified in our training fee structure:
    • in addition to the training fee ($500), a “pre-charge of $1,000 for future analyzer use (20-25 hours within one year from course completion) is now included
    • before training will be scheduled, the fee must be approved by the trainee’s PI or financial manager
    • following course completion, the cost of each analyzer experiment run by the trainee will be deducted from the $1,000 pre-charge
  • Clients who require less frequent or extensive analyzer use should instead request our “Assisted Acquisition” service

Pre-requisites:

  • WORK-FLOW Flow Cytometry Essentials Online Training Course:
    • Section 1: Principles & Instrumentation
    • Section 2: Reagents & Panel Design
    • Section 3: Acquisition & Measurements
    • Section 4: Analysis (with Interactive Tools)
    • Section 5: Statistics

The Analyzer Training Course includes:

  • Two webinar lectures:
    • Webinar 1: Optimizing & Standardizing Instrument Set-up (2 h)
    • Webinar 2: Introduction to BD FACSDiva Acquisition Software (1.5 h)
  • Three hands-on instrument training sessions:
    • Day 1: Demo of Instrument Set-up: 3 colour experiment using stained compensation beads (3 h)
    • Day 2: Trainee optimizes instrument settings under guidance from Facility Trainer (3 h)
    • Day 3: Trainee optimizes and standardizes Instrument set-up for their own experimental samples with the Facility Trainer (3 h)

The hands-on instrument training sessions cover the following topics:

  • Overview of key instrument components (optics, electronics & fluidics)
  • Instrument start-up & fluidics checks
  • Introduction to acquisition software
  • Optimization of instrument set-up (including flow & event rates, PMT voltages, threshold, area scaling, compensation & acquisition criteria)
  • Data acquisition
  • Cleaning & shutdown procedures

To request training, submit an Analyzer Training Course Request (listed under the Training Services category) in iLab.

The AutoMACS Pro is a user-friendly, bench-top, automated column-based magnetic cell separation instrument.  There are 10 pre-loaded separation programs that allow positive or negative selection of labelled target cells based on subset frequency & antigen expression, as well as desired yield and purity.

Pre-requisites:

  • It is recommended that you consult with FCF staff and/or local Miltenyi Biotec reps for advice about reagents and separation programs in advance.

The AutoMACS hands-on training course consists of one ~30 min training session with an FCF staff member and covers the following topics:

  • Brief intro to magnetic cell separation principles
  • Overview of instrument key components
  • Instrument start-up & fluidics checks
  • Overview of software
  • Separation program set-up
  • Cleaning & shutdown procedures

To request training, submit an AutoMACS Training Request (listed under the Training Services category) in iLab.