Ruth Barnard

A flow cytometrist with nearly 20 years’ experience in the field, I have seen huge advances over my career in Industry. Starting out in high-throughput screening at Pfizer, followed by translational biology and biomarker discovery roles, I am currently working in the clinical field leading a team of experienced flow cytometrists and immunologists in a GCP (Good Clinical Practice) regulated laboratory at GSK overseeing clinical trial sample testing.

As a group we design, optimize, validate and execute high parameter flow cytometry panels for a myriad of clinical trials that cover multiple disease areas. A passion and interest in the next big cytometry advance does not necessarily need to be compromised by working under GCP regulations although it certainly presents us with more than its fair share of extra challenges! Embedding spectral cytometry into a regulated environment has been my primary focus over the last 4 years of my career; aligning this agile technology with requirements specific to generating clinical trial data has been a challenging but ultimately rewarding experience.