A normal set of cells is characterized using flow cytometry. A centroid and radius are defined for a set of clusters in an n-dimensional space corresponding to a normal maturation for a cell lineage in the normal set of cells. A test set of cells is characterized using flow cytometry and the characterization is compared to the defined set of clusters. Support Vector Machine (SVM) subroutines are employed to identify reference populations of interest by generating multidimensional boundary definitions. These boundary definitions may be used to identify reference populations to use in defining or refining a centroid line or a radius or radii defining a set of normal clusters, and to characterize and compare a test set of cells to the defined set of normal clusters.