July 30, 2019, New Delhi: Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), in collaboration with Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) launched the AIMS-BD Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Clinical Flow Cytometry, a critical technique that has many clinical applications. The state-of-the-art CoE was launched in Kochi that will provide training to researchers and clinicians to enhance their expertise in flow cytometry and focus on frontier areas in Biological Sciences.
The CoE is well equipped with a comprehensive range of flow cytometer instruments like BD FACSAria™ II cell sorter and BD FACSCanto™ II Clinical Cell Analyser that will address both current and future needs for research and clinical applications.
Dr. Ullas Mony, Head-Advance Immunohematology and Flow Cytometry Lab, Amrita institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center, Kochi said, “Recently established Centre of Excellence (CoE) in clinical flow cytometry at AIMS Kochi is a classic example of an academic- industry collaboration. This facility helps in providing the diagnostic needs of our hospital as well as other hospitals in and around Kochi and also in Kerala. This centre aims to organize CMEs and workshops in clinical Flow Cytometry and also plans to conduct good quality research and thereby standardise novel clinical flow cytometric assays for better patient care. CoE will strengthen our relationship with BD India and I sincerely hope that this centre can serve as a nodal platform for building consensus and developing quality assurance in clinical flow cytometry.”
Added Pavan Mocherla, Managing Director, BD India/South Asia, “At BD, we are driven towards improving our products which can contribute to faster, higher quality and accurate diagnosis and classification of disease states; particularly hematopoietic cancers. Our collaboration with AIMS-Kochi will aim at enhancing the technical expertise required for clinical domain through trainings and workshops. Going forward, the Centre of Excellence at AIMS-Kochi will also evaluate and standardize novel and upcoming clinical flow cytometric assays for feasibility, utility and its impact on patient care.”
BD has been conducting structured training programmes on flow cytometry since 2003 in India. Murli Sundrani, Business Director, BD Life Sciences said, “Till date, more than 1000 students, researchers and clinical customers have been trained on the science of flow cytometry at BD-JH FACSAcademy – Delhi which is our first CoE in India. We are excited to engage more users through knowledge dissemination and detailed application of flow cytometry at institutions of repute such as AIMS, Kochi.”
Flow Cytometry is a process used to sort, separate and examine microscopic particles, such as cells. It plays an important role in medical research and diagnosis. BD offers a growing portfolio of flow cytometry instruments for stem cell research, immunology, CD4 testing and leukemia/lymphoma phenotyping.
