8 sessions to attend at this year's Microscience Microscopy Congress

The Microscience Microscopy Congress 2015 will be held from 29 June to 2 July at the Manchester Central Conference Centre. This year the meeting will feature an international conference of six parallel sessions, pre-congress workshops, poster presentation, a huge exhibition of fully-equipped teaching and learning zone and the RMS International Scientific Imaging Competition.

To help you find the best sessions available at this year's congress Scientifica have selected 8 top sessions for you to attend.

1. Plenary Speaker Professor Jackie Hunter, BBSRC – The Evolution Of Biological Microscopy: From Form To Function – Monday 29th June 5:00 - 6:00 pm

There have been a number of significant breakthroughs in our ability to study microscopic structures at higher resolutions since the beginning of the 21st century.

In this lecture from Professor Jackie Hunter, CEO of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) will discuss recent improvements in labelling technology, better cameras and sensors, improved optics and novel imaging modes, such as super-resolution microscopy.

These technological advances have radically enhanced our ability to image biological processes, particularly in living tissues.

2. Frontiers: Latest Advances in Light Microscopy – Beyond 2D, imaging the Real World in time and space – Tuesday 30th June 10:00 am – Midday

The imaging of living processes requires high temporal and spatial resolution. A number of methods have now been created that enable imaging of living intact samples over extended time periods.

These techniques have now been applied to a whole range of questions in the life sciences. This session will look at a number of these applications and where the field may go next as more technologies develop.

This session will include talks on:

• Tools for micro-imaging cancer: Tumour morphology, microvasculature and stiffness based on optical coherence tomography
• Multidimensional multi-modal mesoscopic biological imaging
• Optical sectioning in interferometric cross-polarisation microscopy
• Multidimensional immunolabeling and 4D time-lapse imaging of vital fibrotic ex vivo lung tissue
• Wide-field two-photon excitation without scanning for live cell imaging with high temporal resolution and low photo-bleaching
• A novel approach to simultaneously tracking two species of single fluorescent molecules in 3D with high temporal resolution using astigmatic microscopy and its application to tracking Snf1/Mig1 signal transduction in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

3. Frontiers: Latest Advances in Light Microscopy – Super-resolution Microscopy – Wednesday 1st July 10:00 am - Midday

Super-resolution light microscopy enables researchers to image with resolutions above the diffraction limit imposed by Abbe's Law. This important step in the evolution of microscopy was recognised with The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014. Recent advances have led to faster acquisition times, single molecule trajectory tracking, higher throughput approaches, deeper tissue imaging and new probes. This session will look at two techniques in super-resolution light microscopy: Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) and Photo-activated localisation microscopy (PALM). It will also investigate recent advances in the field.

This meeting will have presentations on:

• Super-resolution imaging reveals chromatin architecture in its nuclear context, from telomeres to the HoxD structure
• Talin determines the nanoscale architecture of focal adhesions
• Renyi divergence as a clustering analysis method
• Single-molecule based STED microscopy studies of membrane bioactivity
• Standing-wave excitation of fluorescence for precise contour mapping of the red blood cell membrane
• T cell molecular dynamics revealed during synapse formation using super-resolution microscopy

4. Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging – Thursday 2nd July 9:30 – 11:30 am

Fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy is a technique that takes advantage of the modification of the fluorescent excited state of molecules to inform researchers about the nanoscale environment. In biology, it can be used to measure the molecular concentration or environmental conditions making it a powerful method for functional imaging.

The talks at this session are:

• Probing proteins interaction at the membrane thanks to evanescent waves
• Fluorescence Polarization and Fluctuation Analysis (FPFA): A method for simultaneously measuring fluorescence lifetime, time-resolved anisotropy, fluorophore concentration, molecular brightness, and lateral diffusion times.
• FLIM and Optogenetics: A Systems Microscopy Approach
• Rapid fluorescent lifetime imaging to investigate highly transient protein interactions of late-stage autophagy
• FLIM Histology: Detecting protein interactions in human tissue by FRET
• High frame-rate confocal fluorescence lifetime imaging for measurements of intracellular interactions and dynamics

5. Advances in LM Probes – Thursday 2nd July 9:30 – 11:30 am

There is an ongoing need for new and more informative probes to visualise different structures in biology and biotechnology, particularly as new microscopy techniques are developed. There are many researchers working on creating relevant probes for different fluorescence-based detection systems. The latest developments have created ways of detecting the dynamics and heterogeneity of subpopulations from cells to organelles and visualising chromatin and protein assemblies.

The presentations during this session are:

• Site-specific fluorogenic labelling of antimicrobial peptides: imaging fungal infection in real-time
• Chromatin organisation at the alpha globin locus
• Molecular rotors as novel probes of protein aggregation
• A dual-wavelength photoactivatable tri-chromatic mitochondrial fusion assay
• A simple method for GFP- and RFP-based dual colour single molecule localization microscopy
• Imaging cellular structures with SIM, STED and SMLM: A practical comparison

6. FRET, Fluorophores and Novel Techniques for Biochemical Imaging – Thursday 2nd July 2:00 – 4:00 pm

Biochemical imaging tools have been used to show how cells maintain their function and commit to cellular decisions. They can also map biochemical pathways in space and time. This session looks at novel developments and applications of these tools, introducing new techniques, fluorophores and optogenetics.

The talks at this meeting will be:

• Protein-protein interactions at the cellular interface: Biophotonics approaches to live cell FRET measurements
• Visualisation of Multiple Signalling Events in a Single Cell by Fluorescence Lifetime Pattern Analysis
• Controlling protein nuclear localization in living cells with blue light
• Rapid, high-resolution FRET imaging of protein interactions by an all-solid-state FLIM camera system
• Application of ReDox and calcium probes in ratiometric, FLIM and FRET microscopy to studies of ER oxidative protein folding

7. BioImage Analysis – Thursday 2nd July 2:00 – 4:00 pm

Digital images are giving researchers a major problem when it comes to quantifying, analysing and curating the results of what are often huge data sets. This session will look at new approaches to aid the analysis of bio imaging.

Talks at this session will include:

• Wiring the genomic circuits that control cells through microscopy-based phenomics
• Two-photon high-speed XYZT imaging and software analysis elucidate thrombopoiesis and thrombus formation processes in living mice
• Mathematical Methods for Automatic Detection and Tracking of Dividing Cancer Cells in Phase Contrast Microscopy

8. Plenary Speaker Professor Xiaowei Zhuang, Harvard University – Illuminating biology at the nanoscale with super-resolution imaging – Thursday 2nd July 4:15 – 5:00 pm

Professor Xiaowei Zhuang develops advanced imaging techniques to study problems of biomedical importance. She invented STORM, a super-resolution imaging method that overcomes the diffraction limit. She continues to develop single-molecule and super-resolution systems through increases in spatiotemporal resolution and the enabling of in vivo imaging. These approaches allow her to investigate neuronal structures and connectivity, chromatin structure and gene expression and regulation.

Don't forget to visit Scientifica on booth 606 in the exhibition hall where you will be able to see our LASU optogenetics and uncaging system and discuss all of our solutions with one of our product specialists.

For more information about the conference, including a full programme, visit the website (www.mmc2015.org.uk).