The 60^th American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting was held last week in beautiful San Diego, CA.  The field of hematology is focused on the understanding of hematologic disease mechanisms, and the ability to translate these discoveries to clinical care.    Important themes of ASH this year included Immunology and Immunotherapy, Epigenetics, Red Blood Cell biology, and the link between Metabolism and Hematologic disease.   Flow Cytometry was featured prominently in many posters and oral presentations (a quick search of “flow cytometry” found 852 oral and poster presentations at this ASH meeting), as both an important diagnostic tool, and as a way of monitoring treatment and prognosis in a number of hematologic disorders.  A few examples of the diverse use of Flow cytometry include the measurement of Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) in Multiple Myeloma (MM) and Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patients, detection of pathologic heparin induced thrombocytopenia and Thrombosis (HIT) antibodies, measurement of complement activation in atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), and monitoring platelet function for patients on anti-platelet therapies.

FCSL had the pleasure of being featured in a poster presentation on Sunday evening, December 2^nd. The poster, titled RBC-Specific CD47 Pruning Confers Protection and Underlies the Transient Anemia in 5F9 Anti-CD47 Treatment, was presented by James Y Chen, MD, PhD. If you would like a copy of this poster, please click here.