Optimized multicolor immunophenotyping panels (OMIPs) are one of the great manuscript formats that Cytometry Part A offers to the global cytometry community. From its introduction in September 2010 on by Mahnke, Chattopadhyay, and Roederer [1] it has received great attention and the protocols are being used in the laboratories all over the world. At the celebration of the 10th anniversary of OMIPs [2] we could look back to an excellent record with then already 69 published OMIPs. OMIPs are now available for all fields of multiplexed cell analysis by flow cytometry from conventional flow cytometry over mass cytometry to full spectrum flow cytometry.

OMIPs have been published for different mammalian species and show the protocols for a plethora of cell types originating from peripheral blood or from solid tissue. Back in 2018/2019 when we (Yolanda Mahnke and I) started to plan the celebration of the 10th anniversary, we considered preparing an overview of all OMIPs. By then 60 OMIPs were already published. So, it started to become confusing and cumbersome to find the right OMIP. We had the idea of a search tool to make OMIP finding convenient and fulfill unmet needs. We knew from discussions at CYTO conferences that several labs generated their own OMIP tables, so it was clear that there is a need. However, when we soon realized how much work this would be, we hesitated and finally canceled the project.

Luckily for us and the readership two OMIP afficionados, Wang and Creusot (This issue, 866–874), were more courageous and went through the valley of tears. Therefore, we can enjoy in this issue their great overview on all OMIPs published until final acceptance of their review, which was OMIP-70. You will find therein statistical and bibliometric information and a network plot showing the interrelation between OMIPs. The review contains overview tables of all OMIPs and a very useful searchable pivot table that simplifies finding the right OMIPs. I thank the authors for their exciting service to the cytometry community and beyond. In order to highlight the review of Wang and Creusot the five latest OMIPs are part of this issue. Now we have reached OMIP-77, and still counting. It is foreseeable that we could need an update of the overview in the next years.

I would also like to draw your attention to the non-OMIP research papers in this September 2021 issue. We have here a broad range of topics including cell sorting induced stress, visualization of highly multiplexed flow cytometry data, spill over in mass cytometry and quantification of colocalization in microscopic images.

Two manuscripts are focusing on cellular barcoding in flow cytometry, a pivotal tool for increasing sample throughput. Gajera and colleagues (This issue, 939–945) show a way to barcode synaptosomes from human brain for mass cytometry. Reisman and colleagues (This issue, 946–953) software development is at the end of the barcoding pipeline, the analysis of data from barcoded samples. They offer a new bioinformatic solution called DebarcodeR for accurate and reliable debarcoding the data of individual samples from pooled measurements.

Enjoy reading this month's issue of Cytometry Part A.