Rachael Walker, Babraham Institute, Cambridge

Rachael Walker has been the Head of Flow Cytometry at the Babraham Institute, Cambridge since 2012. Following a PhD in Tissue Engineering from the University of Liverpool, Rachael embarked on a career in flow cytometry.  Rachael managed several flow cytometry core facilities at the University of Cambridge over the 7 years before joining Babraham and is very active in the flow cytometry community.

Rachael is chair of the Mid-Anglia Cytometry Club (MACC), secretary of flowcytometryUK and Honorary Secretary and Fellow of the Cytometry section of Royal Microscopical Society.  She is also very involved with ISAC (International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry), and is the co-chair of ISAC Membership Services Committee and a member of the Shared Resources Laboratory committee.

Rachael was awarded an ISAC Scholarship in 2012 and is currently an ISAC SRL Emerging Leader.  Training and education of users is one of Rachael’s passions and she has worked with Derek Davies to produce a modular flow cytometry course. They were awarded a MTP grant from the BBSRC for their courses, which are held on a regular basis at Babraham Institute.

Derek Davies, Francis Crick Institute, London

Derek Davies obtained a BSc from the University of Leeds in 1980 and worked initially in a Histopathology and Cytopathology Laboratory during which time he used microdensitometry to assess DNA content in pre-cancerous cells.  In 1985 he became involved with flow cytometry and obtained an MRC grant to study the feasibility of using DNA cytometry to assess proliferation in cervical cells.

Since 1990 he has worked at what is now The Francis Crick Institute in London and runs a busy Core Facility serving over 300 researchers. He leads a team of 12 and oversees a laboratory with 9 cell sorters, 12 analytical cytometers and two imaging flow cytometers.  He is a past Councilor of ISAC (International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry) and former Chair of the ISAC’s Shared Resource Laboratory Task Force.

Derek sits on the RMS Flow Cytometry Section and the Committee of the London Cytometry Club, has been involved in teaching cytometry in the UK and throughout Europe for many years and is also Chair of flowcytometryUK, having organised many national and international meetings, conferences and symposia.