The Metro Detroit Cytometry Group (MDCG) meets monthly for informal discussions on topics relating to flow, image and scanning cytometry. The meetings are free, open to everyone, and are usually scheduled for the last Thursday of each month (from 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm). Meetings are rescheduled around holidays, and no meetings are held for the months of July and August. An announcement of upcoming meetings is sent via email (see Contact Information to sign up) and also posted as an Adobe Portable Document Format file (.pdf; see Next Meeting).
Discussion leaders are chosen and invited by the MDCG coordinators, who are always open for suggestions (see Contact Information). In order to provide a convivial atmosphere, lunch is included with the meeting (usually pizza and soda pop) with the support of commercial cytometry companies.
A list of previous meetings is available (see Past Meetings).
The MDCG was founded in 1985 by Drs. Alex Nakeff and Stephen Lerman of Wayne State University (WSU). Meetings were originally held at Detroit Receiving Hospital until the early 90s brought a larger turnout that necessitated a move to a more spacious room (4B Morse) at Harper Hospital (now Harper University Hospital). Lunches consisted of sandwiches (ham or turkey), potato chips and soda pop, catered by the hospital staff. When Dr. Nakeff accepted a position with the Henry Ford Health System, meetings were moved to Scott Hall, home to WSU's School of Medicine. At that time, pizza became the standard fare. The MDCG has also met at Henry Ford Health System's One Ford Place. Dr. George Wilson replaced Dr. Lerman in 2003, and the preferred meeting location is now the Wertz auditorium on the second floor of the Karmanos Cancer Institute's Hudson-Webber Cancer Research Center (which can be accessed through the north end of Harper University Hospital.) Meeting locations are always indicated in the meeting announcements.
Early on, paper announcements were posted around the Detroit Medical Center and sent through campus and U.S. mail to interested parties. Posted announcements are now supplemented with an online copy, and email has entirely replaced traditional mail. The mailing list has been maintained by the departments of Hematology & Oncology and Immunology & Microbiology at WSU, and is now overseen by the KCI Flow Cytometry Core Facility.
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