Annelies Emmaneel

Dr. Annelies Emmaneel defended her PhD in Bioinformatics last year. She holds a Master of Science in Biochemistry and Biotechnology from Ghent University, specializing in Microbiology and Bioinformatics. During her PhD, Annelies worked primarily with cytometry data, developing computational pipelines to classify patients with primary immunodeficiencies, with the aim of integrating these pipelines into clinical practice.

In addition to her interest in applying computational techniques to biological problems, she has a particular focus on the preprocessing steps of computational pipelines. This led her to develop PeacoQC, a quality control tool designed to clean various types of cytometry data.

The Francis Crick Institute Team Members

Sina Namjou
I completed my BSc in Biomedical Sciences at the University of the West of England in Bristol. I began my career at the Francis Crick Institute during the COVID-19 pandemic working in a PCR testing pipeline. I was then introduced to Flow Cytometry where I discovered an interest in the electronics underpinning a flow cytometer.

Beatriz Teixeira
I come from Portugal, Lisbon, where I did my Bachelor’s in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Later I decided to go to Porto’s University of Sciences for my Masters in Biochemistry, where I did my thesis on development of nano vaccines in the context of bladder cancer. After completing my master’s, I started working in the Flow Cytometry core at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science. As of 2024 I moved to London and am currently working at the Flow Cytometry STP as a Senior Research Scientist. Flow Cytometry has been a highway to explore my interest in immunology, but it has also showed me many different aspects of science and reaserch.

Gift Ahimbisibwe
I am from Uganda, East Africa, with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences and an MSc in Immunology and Clinical Microbiology. During my MSc, I completed a basic introduction to flow cytometry course for some immunological techniques that were part of the training.

My first role as a biomedical scientist was in a National Influenza Surveillance Laboratory. I then transitioned to tuberculosis (TB) research, working on a TB postmortem study investigating T cell immunology in TB-infected tissues. It was during this time that I started using flow cytometry as an assay, coinciding with my institute's acquisition of its first Cytek Aurora. I immediately began working with large panels. As part of the Crick Africa Network, I had the opportunity to visit the Flow Facility at the Francis Crick Institute where I got employed in June 2023 in a split position between the Flow STP and a SARS-COV-2 study. I have a particular interest in building big, ambitious flow panels getting them to work, making sense of the chaos, and troubleshooting when they inevitably decide to misbehave.

Gavin Sooranna
I completed my undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Loughborough University in 2012, I then moved to London where I went on to do a MRes degree in Drug Discovery and Development at Imperial College London in 2013. I then changed my discipline and moved into the field of preterm labour completing a PhD in Immunology at Imperial College London in 2022.

During my PhD I was a heavy user of Flow Cytometry and enjoyed the field of Cytometry to the effect that I wanted to learn more about it. I want to combine my expertise in Chemistry and Immunology and apply it to develop the field of Cytometry further. These ideals have led me to start my career at the Francis Crick Institute where I now am a laboratory research scientist in the Flow Cytometry core facility, since 2023.

Cantug Bar

Dr. Cantug Bar received his PhD in 2021 from University of Warwick on Plant molecular biology. During his work to understand stochasticity in plant innate immune responses to pathogenesis he made extensive use of flow cytometry which led him to seek a career in the field. Following his degree, he joined the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute Flow cytometry Core Facility as a Scientific Associate and developed a keen interest in systems optimization and end user training.

Most recently, he contributed to the launch of the “Core Season” technical skills programme for CRUK CI researchers in Autumn 2024, co-authored the 2024 ISAC SRL Topics of Interest Survey and recently became the co-chair of ISAC SRL Content Subcommittee.

For this symposium, he will be hosting a workshop on the topic of challenges faced in data management. From acquisition to quality, to storage, to access and more… this session will create an open discussion platform for attendees to share experiences, identify common pain points, and explore best course of actions for addressing these issues, fostering collaboration among facilities.