Dr. Nicole Poulton

Affiliation : Research Scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the Director of the J.J. Mac Isaac Facility for Aquatic Cytometry, USA

Title of the Talk/Lab :Flow cytometry & Oceanography

Nicole Poulton obtained her PhD in Biological Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program, in Boston, MA, USA (2001).  In 2001 she started here career at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, located in East Boothbay, ME, USA as a postdoctoral research scientist.  She became Director of the Center for Aquatic Cytometry at Bigelow Laboratory in 2014, and most recently was promoted to Senior Research Scientist in 2021.

Dr. Poulton’s research uses both flow and imaging cytometry to identify and examine bacteria and phytoplankton from natural environments. She works with samples from many natural communities, ranging from lakes and oceans, to hyper-saline ponds, oceanic sediments, and mineral rich hot springs.  The Center for Aquatic Cytometry is very involved in many ongoing research projects within the academic community and industry.  Shehas developed flow cytometric techniques for aquatic monitoring using imaging cytometry (1-2) and for heterotrophic protist detection (3), as well as methods for single cell genomics analysis of marine microbes (4-5).

Dr. Poulton has organized and taught cytometry workshops in the USA, Australia, and India on the use of flow cytometry in aquatic sciences. She is currently a Councilor (2020-2024 term) for the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) and was a former Shared Resource Laboratory (SRL) Emerging Leader (2017-2021).

Lecture: Flow cytometry & Oceanography

Dr. Poulton’s lecture will introduce the use of flow cytometry for detecting phytoplankton, bacteria and virus like particles (VLPs) in aquatic environments. The lecture will highlight the use of flow cytometry for monitoring ocean and freshwater environments and the detection of various microbial components of aquatic ecosystems.

Relevant Literature:

1.) Poulton, N. J. FlowCAM – Quantification and Classification of Phytoplankton by Imaging Flow Cytometry. In. Imaging Flow Cytometry:  Methods and Protocols Eds.  N. Barteneva, and I. Vorobjev.doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-3302-0_17 p 237-247.

2.) Dashkova, V., D. Malashenkov, J. Poulton, I. Vorobjev, and N. Barteneva. 2017. Imaging flow cytometry for phytoplankton analysis. Methods 112: 118-200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ymeth.2016.05.007

3.) Rose, J. M., D. A. Caron, M. E. Sieracki and J. Poulton. 2004. Counting heterotrophic nanoplanktonicprotists in cultures and in aquatic communities by flow cytometry.  Aquatic Microbial Ecology  34: 263-277.

4.) Rinke, C., J. Lee, B. Thompson, Poulton, E. Dmitrieff, R. Malmstrom, R. Stepanauskas, T. Woyke. 2014.Obtaining genomes from uncultivated environmental microorganisms using FACS-based single-cell genomics.  Nature Protocols. 9(5):1038-48. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2014.067

5.) Heywood, JL, ME Sieracki, W Bellows, J.Poulton, R Stepanauskas. 2010.  Capturing diversity of marine heterotrophic protists – one cell at a time. ISME Journal DOI: ISMEJ.2010.155