28th Annual Conference of the German Society for Cytometry: More than counting cells

For the second time in a row, the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) organized and hosted the „Annual Conference of the German Society for Cytometry“(DGfZ). Nearly 160 national and international scientists attended this years’s  conference themed „Life in Focus“.  The event was held at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena from September 19-21.

Cytometry is an essential analysis technique in the fields of biology, medicine, and ecology. It is used to examine cells and their genetic, biochemical, and structural characteristics. High-ranking scientists from Germany, Europe, and overseas met in Jena to exchange ideas and to discuss new methods and applications in the field of cytometry. The topics that were covered at the conference ranged from the detection of cancer cells in metastases to high throughput analysis of pollen in microfluidic chips. A total of 16 different companies presented current products and services in the field of cytometry and bioanalytics at an accompanying industrial exhibition.

During an evening event at the famous Zeiss Planetarium, excellent young scientists in the field of cytometry were honoured. The Klaus-Goerttler-Prize for an outstanding doctoral thesis was awarded to Philipp Rosendahl of the University of Dresden. He is researching a method with which cells can be classified without fluorescent dyes. The prize is endowed with 1000 € and is presented annually on the occasion of the conference. Christoph Vess, employee of Miltenyi Biotec, won the prize for the best Product Slam presentation. The best poster award went to Lisa Budzinski of the German Rheumatism Research Centre (DRFZ) in Berlin. The PhD student presented her results on particle-based methods that improve the qualtity of measurement data and extend the field of application of cytometry.

“The conferences this year and last year in Jena were a great success. We are particularly proud to have realized such an outstanding scientific program” Wolfgang Fritzsche, Conference President and Head of Department at Leibniz IPHT, concludes.

Wolfgang Fritzsche and the organizing team would like to thank all chairs, exhibitors, speakers, participants, poster presenters and authors for marking this year’s conference a success. See you again next year in Berlin!