ASU was the first university in Russia to hold a school on flow cytometry

Flow cytometry is a relatively new method of cytogenetics, and such school is carried out for the first time in Russia. Thus, Altai State University in general and Bioengineering Laboratory in particular has become a pioneer in this research direction.

“Flow cytometry is currently one of the most breakthrough and advanced methods in plant breeding,” Head of Organization Committee, Head of Bioengineering Laboratory, Candidate of Biology Maxim G. Kutsev said. “Flow cytometry is a relatively fast method for detecting hybrids and new true-breeding plants. However, in classical breeding you need to wait for a plant to grow to proceed to the study of its traits, while cytometry allows detecting the plant’s genotype on the early stages of ontogenesis. This method also helps studying the influence of different anthropogenic and climatic factors on plants.”

The distinctive feature of the school, which hosted around 50 young scientists from all over Russia, was the organization of practical training with unique equipment, such as Beckman Coutler flow cytometer intended for detection of plant genotype. In the course of three days’ work with plant material scientists and students were independently choosing and mastering the most suitable physical and chemical methods in this area of biology.

“The method of flow cytometry is widely used in medicine, but it was not much used in agriculture and plant research in Russia. That is why we are making the first and very important step in promotion of this method and building of scientific ties in this direction of cytogenetics,” Maxim G. Kutsev emphasized.