The MIO organised the CNRS "CYTOEXPERT 2022" Thematic School at the Endoume Marine Station.
Thanks to the support of the CNRS, IR ILICO, lRP "DYF2M" (CNRS) and the MIO's PRECYM platform, the MIO was able to organise a thematic school from 4 to 7 October at the Endoume Marine Station, the aim of which was to encourage community action to master and disseminate good practice in flow cytometry. These good practices are essential for carrying out quality analyses of aquatic planktonic microbial assemblages and guaranteeing robust, bankable data that can be shared and disseminated nationally and internationally. For this data to play its role as a lever for science and innovation, it must be reliable, easily accessible and reusable in accordance with FAIR principles. It is also essential that the data is qualified, and that it complies with standardised analysis protocols recognised by the community. The objectives of the Thematic School were to present to its participants :
Cytometry vocabulary (variables measured, groups described, characteristics of instruments, measurements made, etc.) as defined by experts in the field,
The best practices required to produce quality data,
The cytometry data processing chain, from the cytometer to the data bank.
The school taught 20 people (researchers, ITAs, post-docs and doctoral students) from all over France, at all levels of cytometry, from the marine and freshwater sectors, through theoretical courses and practical workshops on different models of cytometers, the most up-to-date sample preparation and analysis protocols resulting from the technological watch carried out by its expert lecturers in the field. Thanks to exchanges of information with the community, the 7 instructors from the Observatoire Océanographique de Banyuls (OOB), the Laboratoire de Géochimie (LOG) de Wimereux and the MIO were able to present and discuss the challenges and tools likely to improve the procedure for generating, processing and displaying cytometry data, as well as archiving them in interoperable databases.