Quarter 1 Newsletter 2020

8 April 2020

In line with Cardiff University policy our facility is currently closed for general access due to the COVID-19 outbreak. We remain keen to continue to give scientific and technical advice, discuss your research plans or provide quotes and financial advice. Contact us at cbsadmin@cardiff.ac.uk.

As we live through these unprecedented times due to the COVID-19 outbreak, with challenges and concerns we could never have envisaged, we wish all of our contacts inside and outside of Cardiff University the very best and look forward to working together in the future.

Successful ISO 9001:2015 reaccreditation

The annual external ISO 9001:2015 audit of our facility was carried out in February and we are delighted to say that we passed all the requirements and have been reaccredited.

This means that our quality management system continues to demonstrate its ability to provide services that consistently meet customer and regulatory requirements. We remain the only UK Multi-Core Facility to have this accreditation, supporting both our Cardiff University and external customers.

Maybe you are a Cardiff University colleague looking for advice on working to this standard? Or maybe you are a business interested in contract work we can do for you to this standard?

Feel free to contact us at cbsadmin@cardiff.ac.uk to find out more.

Think imaging flow cytometry is just for cells? Well it's time to think again!

We attended the ImageStream® Revolution Workshop held by Luminex in The University of Exeter in March. The study of cells using an ImageStream® imaging flow cytometer to support oncology and immunology research is well known. It was fascinating however to hear about the use of this technology across so many other areas of scientific research, from classifying pollen in urban pond sediment to characterising particulates in glacial ice to evaluating dormant bacteria in frozen food samples.

A common theme across all the research areas was the many advantages of imaging flow cytometry over light microscopy including being much quicker, having greater reproducibility, being quantitative and minimising human error.

Thank you to The University of Exeter and Luminex for holding this event.

Launch of Quality Management Systems (QMS) and Auditing Working Group

We are pleased to introduce the new QMS and Auditing Working Group. An initiative across the Cardiff University College of Biomedical and Life Sciences, we have set this up with many colleagues, including from the Centre for Trials Research, Centre for Medical Education, Wales Research and Diagnostic PET Imaging Centre, Research and Innovation Services, Biobank and TeloNostiX. Between us we work to various standards and regulations, including ISO 9001, ISO 17025, Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Good Clinical Practice (GCP), Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) and the Human Tissue Act (HTA). The Working Group aims to promote collaboration on the standards, offering support and guidance on compliance and regulatory issues as well as on the Q-Pulse QMS system. We held our first meeting in January 2020, and will continue to meet twice a year to discuss external audit findings and solutions, changes in standards and regulations and share best practice.

If you work in Cardiff University to a standard and are regularly audited, are interested in joining us or just in hearing more about what we are doing, please contact us at cbsadmin@cardiff.ac.uk.

Hello to all Cardiff University flow cytometrists!

Remember that further to the support from CBS Flow Technologists Cath Naseriyan and Ann Kift-Morgan, you can email training@incytometry.co.uk or phone (07909 327647) Graham Bottley at InCytometry directly.

Flow cytometry and FlowJo courses

Thank you to those of you who attended the courses in January and March. We will be scheduling more of these very popular courses later in the year and will communicate the dates widely.