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Flow Cytometry from Fundamentals to Advanced Applications

Instructor: Christian Aguilera-Sandoval, Ph.D.

Format: Live Virtual | 12 Modules

Start Date: October 13, 2025

Time: Lectures 2x/Weekly

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Whether you're working in clinical diagnostics, therapeutic development, or research applications, this training provides the technical depth and FDA regulatory awareness essential for success in today's competitive biotech environment.
 
Transform Your Career 

  • From immunophenotyping to multi-parameter assays

  • Master assay validation, documentation, and audit readiness

  • Prepare for IND/BLA submissions and lead high-impact flow cytometry programs

Build Expertise from the Ground Up

Core Concepts:

  • Principles of Flow Cytometry: Hydrodynamic focusing, optics, fluidics, electronics, and fluorochrome behavior

  • Fluorophore Spectral Properties: Understanding excitation/emission profiles, Stokes shift, and spillover

  • Panel Design Fundamentals: Antigen density, co-expression patterns, fluorochrome brightness, and spectral separation

  • Compensation & Spectral Unmixing: Theory and best practices across conventional and spectral cytometers

  • Gating Strategies: Boolean logic, hierarchical gating, exclusion/inclusion gating, and population identification

  • Quality Control & Assurance: Daily instrument QC, performance metrics (e.g., CVs, rCVs, stain index), and troubleshooting

  • Clinical & Regulatory Requirements: CLIA, CAP, and FDA expectations for method validation, documentation, and data integrity

Software Training:

  • FlowJo for gating, panel design, and data analysis

Technical Skills:

  • Instrument Setup & Calibration: PMT voltage optimization, laser alignment, and baseline setup using beads or reference controls

  • Multicolor Panel Design: Designing 6–20+ color panels for immunophenotyping, cytokine profiling, MRD, and CAR expression

  • Sample Preparation & Staining: Surface, intracellular, viability, barcoding, and fixation/permeabilization protocols

  • Data Acquisition: Best practices for event collection, thresholding, doublet discrimination, and acquisition templates

  • Data Analysis: Manual gating, t-SNE/UMAP, FlowSOM, and high-dimensional analysis

  • Assay Validation: For various regulatory environments like RUO, GMP, GLP, CLIA, IVD: Accuracy, precision, specificity, LOD/LOQ, linearity, and inter/intra-assay reproducibility

  • Documentation & Compliance: Creating SOPs, validation reports, assay protocols, and audit-ready records for FDA and CAP compliance

Real-World Application

Specialized Content for Cell and Gene Therapy:

  • CAR-T monitoring

  • Minimal residual disease (MRD) analysis

  • FDA & ICH Q2-aligned validation strategies

  • Build and validate GxP-compliant flow cytometry assays for identity, purity, viability, and potency testing with suggested pre-made panels

  • Design scalable, phase-appropriate assays to support IND, BLA, and commercial release of CGT products

  • Train staff on assay transfer, qualification, and lifecycle management for client-sponsored programs

  • Detect and quantify CAR expression, vector transduction efficiency, and residual impurities

  • Optimize high-parameter panel design (18–30+ colors) for in-process monitoring and QC lot release

Advanced Techniques:

  • FACS sorting for single-cell workflows

  • Companion diagnostics development

  • ML tools (tSNE, UMAP) for automated classification

Christian Aguilera-Sandoval, Ph.D.

Christian Aguilera-Sandoval, Ph.D.

Founder, SuperNova Flow Cytometry

Christian Aguilera-Sandoval is an executive leader in scientific and medical affairs with deep expertise in flow cytometry, cell and gene therapy, and analytical development. He founded SuperNova Flow Cytometry to bring advanced training and consulting to the field after leadership roles at FlowJo and Becton Dickinson.

Christian earned his PhD in Immunology from UCLA and completed postdoctoral research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research has been published in leading journals including Nature and Nature Biotechnology, and he has taught flow cytometry at UCLA, UNC-Chapel Hill, NIH, NCI, and the U.S. Naval Academy.

He is recognized for both scientific contributions and educational excellence, with honors from the California State Assembly, California State Senate, and the U.S. President’s Education Award. His current work emphasizes practical, hands-on training that prepares professionals for advanced applications in research, clinical diagnostics, and cell and gene therapy.

 

 

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