I agree with Howard's analysis, so here is my two cents
worth: Why not keep the new term both simple and classic? How about MCCA
(Multicolor Cytometric Analysis)-pronounced: mecca which means "a place that
is regarded as the center of an activity or interest". Multicolor analysis
in multidimensions is certainly what our lab "centers" its interest on, as
well as the folks at Los Alamos. And besides this is very easy to remember
and spell.
Lisa
**************************************************************
Lisa Reece
Senior Research Associate
Molecular Cytometry Unit
Dept. of Internal Medicine-Div. Of Infectious Diseases
University of Texas Medical Branch
E-mail: lreece@utmb.edu <mailto:lreece@utmb.edu>
-----Original Message-----
From: Howard Shapiro
[mailto:hms@shapirolab.com] <mailto:[mailto:hms@shapirolab.com]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 8:12 PM
To: Cytometry Mailing List
Cc: Cytometry Mailing List
Subject: Re: Help me!
Mario Roederer wants to avoid FUCing his
cells and suggests "ultracytometry"
in preference to "polycytometry" or
"polychromatic cytometry" to describe
his current 11-color work. The problem is
that neither "polycytometry" nor
"ultracytometry" brings to mind the use of
multiple colors for analysis
("poly" suggests cytometry of more than one
cell, or maybe cytometry of
mature neutrophils in generalor parrot cells
in particular, and why should
"ultra" denote more colors, rather than
better precision, resolution,
sensitivity, etc.?); this leaves
"polychromatic cytometry" with a clear
advantage. Mario and his colleagues have
been winning the color wars at
Camp Flow for some years now, having
progressed from 6 to 7 to 8, etc., and
now to 11 - reminiscent of the volume
controls on Spinal Tap's amplifiers.
However, since the advance in the next paper
is going to be the eleventh
color, information would actually be lost if
the phrase "11-color" were
omitted from the title. Going by the
numbers, using the same convention as
is used, for example, for naming
hydrocarbons, Mario's latest effort is
properly called undecachromatic, or, to be
more specific,
undecafluorochromatic, cytometry. This is
informative, precise, and
(pseudo)classical, if Greek (and Latin) to
me (et tu). And by the way, 11
(or 13, adding the two scatter measurements)
isn't anywhere near the most
parameters measured from a single cell in
flow; as far as I know, the old
Los Alamos work on 32-angle scatter
(dotriacontaparameter flow cytometry)
still would rate the entry in the record
books. I'm not sure even FlowJo and
FCS Express can handle that many parameters.
-Howard
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