21-22 March 2022, online and at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK
The Comparative and Veterinary Immunology Group (CVIG) of the British Society for Immunology organised an online Avian Immunology Flow Cytometry Symposium on the 21 March 2022 and an in-person workshop on 22 March held at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, in conjunction with Veterinary Biocontained facility Network (VetBioNet). The Immunology Flow Cytometry Symposium was originally scheduled to take place in Edinburgh in April 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were 100 delegates in attendance for the online event using Zoom’s meeting platform. The platform was chosen to encourage delegates to engage via online chat options or verbally by allowing access to their microphones. In addition, organisers designed a number of polls during the online event to get a better understanding of the reagents, source of material and the level of flow cytometric techniques being used in the avian research community.
On the first day of the event, there was an exceptional line-up of speakers. Professor Lonneke Vervelde from the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK, chaired the online event and the organisers would like to thank them for creating a great interactive atmosphere. Dr Tina Dalgaard from Aarhus University, Denmark, was the first speaker and outlined the currently available antibodies for use in chicken T cell phenotyping and function. Dr Dalgaard shared their experience of some antibody clones that do not bind to T cells from certain chicken lines and how the level of expression of T cell activation markers depends on chicken age, breed, and tissue. Professor Sonja Härtle from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, gave an overview of chicken B cells and the current research on distinguishing chicken plasma cells. Professor Härtle showcased their current work in staining chicken B cells with anti-immunoglobulin antibodies and the identification of additional surface markers for chicken B cell. Dr Adam Balic from the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK, demonstrated current progress in identification of chicken conventional dendritic cells by the development of tools such as a chicken FLT3 antibody. Using single cell RNA-seq analysis, DrBalic demonstrated the presence of subpopulations of cDC1 in chickens and for the first time described the transcriptome of chicken follicular dendritic cells.
After a short break, Dr Kate Sutton from the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK presented an overview of flow cytometric techniques used to analyse the function of chicken antigen-presenting cells. Dr Sutton provided insights into aspects of antigen uptake and how to analyse the different steps of intracellular antigen processing using flow cytometry. Next, Dr Wihelm Gerner from the Pirbright Institute, UK, and Dr Julia Lager from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, demonstrated that mRNA expression of chicken cytokines can be measured using flow cytometry. The speakers provided an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the system. Finally, our invited speaker Dr Christine Jansen from Wageningen University, The Netherlands, provided an overview of current research on chicken natural killer cells.
On the second day of the event, Professors Vervelde and Härtle along with Drs Dalgaard and Sutton provided an in-person workshop on chicken immunology flow cytometry techniques. The aim of the workshop was to provide novice and experienced avian researchers with insights into flow cytometry techniques, pitfalls, reagents and analytical practices. Eight early career scientists from France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and the UK attended. Each participant gave an overview of their current research projects which led to fruitful discussions on aspects of their work. Each researcher had an opportunity to discuss issues with their current research and to receive feedback from experienced avian immunology researchers. Attendees found the workshop highly insightful and would appreciate more similar workshops in the future.
CVIG want to forward our appreciation and a huge thank you to the BSI events team; Jane Sessenwein, Tracey Sheehan and especially to Rebecca McRobb who took care of every possible detail in organising and running the meeting.
CVIG committee: Kate Sutton, Amanda Gibson, Rebecca McLean, Wilhelm Gerner, Lindert Benedictus, Elma Tchilian