Presentation 1: Determining human lymphocyte subsets by spectral flow cytometry in health and disease

Abstract: Spectral flow cytometry is an innovation in the field of flow cytometry. It differs from conventional flow cytometry by measuring the entire spectrum of light emitted from the sample and using an algorithm to unmix individual signals, rather than using the simple band-pass filters of conventional flow cytometry.

We created a flow cytometry panel for the purpose of deep phenotyping human lymphocyte subsets, utilising spectral flow cytometry. We have generated a 30-colour lymphocyte panel, to define >50 cellular subsets and are standardising this for use in personalised medicine.

Bio: A/Prof Katrina Randall is a clinical immunologist and Director of Clinical Immunology at Canberra Hospital. She is also an Immunopathologist at ACT Pathology. Having completed her PhD at ANU at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, she has an ongoing research interest in primary immunodeficiency, autoimmunity and allergy. A/Prof Randall is a current ACT Health Research and Innovation Fund Fellow.

Presentation 2: Time in Memory: a window upon novel therapeutics?

Abstract: Our capability to remember conjunctions of what happened when and where, i.e., the episodic component of declarative memory, undergoes preferential degradation during aging, and with some psychiatric disorders. Memorizing both temporal and spatial associations that underlie declarative memory is known to critically rely on the hippocampus, but the underlying mechanisms remain largely hypothetical. By designing specific paradigms in animal models relevant to human aspects of memory, we have identified temporal binding as a cardinal features of declarative memory formation and degradation in both mice and humans. In this presentation, we will describe the paradigms and psychological processes critical to memorisation, and cover the extent to which time can be harnessed to rescue memory deficits throughout life span.

Bio: Dr Shaam Al-Abed is a postdoctoral researcher within the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience at the Australian National University. Her research primarily addresses the mechanisms underlying memory formation, from psychology to synapses, in health and disease. She earned a PhD in 2013 from the University of Bordeaux, France, during which she investigated the mechanisms underlying the degradation of cognition with age and in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In 2018, she joined Dr Nathalie Dehorter’s group to study how development shapes the neuronal circuits responsible for memory processing, and how defects in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism leads to cognitive disabilities.