The First International Workshop on Practical Cytometry funded jointly by ISTC and its Partner BTEP was held on May 23-28, in Moscow, at the Russian Hematology Scientific Center RAMS. About a hundred experts from the U.S., Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Moldova attended the event. The latest methods in analytical cytometry were discussed as well as the use of flow and imaging cytometry to study cell and molecular biology, stem cells, infectious diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis, cell proliferation, apoptosis and immunophenotype analysis.
Modern flow cytometry is rapidly spreading to different areas of cell biology, signal transduction, molecular biology, etc. The last few years have shown breakthroughs in instrumentation, discovery of new fluorochromes and development of fluorescent proteins, small diode, solid-state lasers, implementation of statistically powerful software and novel methodologies. Over the last 15 years, flow cytometry has become the highly reliable standard for diagnostics of blood malignancies such as leukemia and lymphomas. 
Further collaboration is planned between US experts and scientists from the former Soviet Union. Collaborations is already ongoing between the Institute for Bioorganic Chemistry, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Moscow State University (Russia) and the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda and Harvard University (US) to name a few. 

Plenary meeting at the Hematology Center, Moscow