CFU Assay Course-CA-Winter

This three-day hands-on training program from STEMCELL Technologies provides intensive laboratory instruction in the colony-forming unit (CFU) assay, an in vitro cell culture technique used to enumerate hematopoietic progenitor cells capable of forming multilineage and lineage-restricted colonies. Participants work with MethoCult methylcellulose-based medium to plate bone marrow, cord blood, or peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples, then learn to identify and score erythroid (CFU-E, BFU-E), granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM), and multilineage (CFU-GEMM) colonies under inverted microscopy after 14 days of incubation at 37°C with 5% CO2.

The course combines lecture with practical bench work in a small cohort format. Morning sessions cover assay theory, sample preparation, cell density titration, and quality-control considerations, while afternoons are devoted to plating practice, incubation setup, and guided colony identification. Trainees receive a printed course manual, certificate of completion, and a starter kit of reagents and consumables to support immediate implementation in their own laboratory for research use only. The winter Canada session is held at the STEMCELL Technologies training facility in Vancouver, BC.