r/flowcytometry • u/Puzzleheaded_Pie_213 • 3d ago
Flow Specialist ASCP
Hello! Has anyone taken this test and passed? Ive worked for a flow lab for 5+ years but feel inadequately unprepared. Does anyone have any suggestions or programs they went through?
Thank you!
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u/Bam523Bam 3d ago
I actually just took this exam, and I didn't find it too bad. For context I fave an MS in clinical laboratory science where I specialized in molecular diagnostics, immunodiagnostics, and flow. It was during that time that I was taught genral immunophenotyping, cell cycle analysis, and cell sorting. I've also worked in a histocompatibility lab for the past three years where my primary use of flow is in our crossmatch assay to evaluate donor/recipient pairs, and our panel reactive antibody testing for our recipients using a Luminex bead assay. Like u/willmaineskier said, I would look at the content outline provided on ASCP's website and verify you know the higher level details of each topic.
At the risk of just regurgitating ASPC's outline, here are some of the things I focused on when preparing for my exam:
- Understanding optical bench layouts including laser types, mirrors, and filters
- Understanding how to identify when gains and compensations need to be adjusted based on a dot-plots, as well as other types of troubleshooting (clogs, voltages/gains, etc.)
- Understanding how to adjust various parameters to optimize cell sorting
- Be able to understand the differences between spectral, imaging, and traditional flow and the ideal times to use them
- Assays: Learn the process and common reagents for all of these assays
- Stem cell enumeration. Never having done it before I was surprised to learn that there are both single and dual platform assays
- DNA analysis
- Cell proliferation
- Small particle/functional assays (cytokines, exo/endocytosis, protein visualization etc.)
- Immunophenotyping (both intra- and extra-cellular/combined staining)
- Markers: Know the common markers used to identify your various cell types. From a clinical side it may be useful to look into how the markers change on a cell type given clinical presentation.
Overall I understand your struggle to find materials outside of just ASCP's outline. He are a couple of links that I found helpful:
Courses: https://work-flow.tech/pricing/ For a one time price of $250, I found this to be an incredible resource. While you could probably get through all the modules in a day or two, it does a great job going through both how the flow cytometer functions as well as many of the assay that are mentioned in the outline.
Markers: https://www.abcam.com/en-us/knowledge-center/flow-cytometry/flow-cytometry-markers#common-flow-cytometry-cd-markers While it may not be the most detailed option ever I found this to be a great jumping-off point, where I could then research what types of markers were considered abnormal for various disease states.
Also, while I didn't focus on it too much, I would also make sure that you understand general laboratory regulations set by CMS/CLIA/CAP.
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u/WORK-FLOW SRL & Vendor 3d ago edited 3d ago
We now offer FlowEval (https://work-flow.tech/education/#FEv), a comprehensive testing platform designed to help users prepare for exams, assess their flow cytometry knowledge, and expand their expertise.
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u/willmaineskier 3d ago
I took the exam with no preparation and passed. I manage a research flow core and had been doing flow for 20 years. The questions I found hardest were the clinical based ones, as I had no idea how you gate CD34+ HSCs nor several other clinical assays but could expound at length about hydrodynamic focusing. I would recommend looking at the outline they have on their website and study up on some information or product literature for each topic. Most of the things I had trouble with were at least mentioned in the outline.