FocalPlane - Where biology meets microscopy

Welcome to FocalPlane

FocalPlane is a community site for anyone who uses microscopy in their research. It is a place where you can interact with a global community of imaging scientists, engineers, chemists, and bioimage analysts.

FocalPlane is your site and once registered, you are free to share a blog post, add an image to our gallery, post a job advert or put up an event listing.

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Recent posts

FocalPlane features… Imaging Cell Architecture and Dynamics with Journal of Cell Science

Posted by FocalPlane, on 17 October 2024

Our November webinar is a celebration of the Journal of Cell Science Special Issue: Imaging Cell Architecture and Dynamics. Our Guest Editors, Lucy Collinson and Guillaume Jacquemet, have invited the authors of three of the papers published in this issue to present their research. View the ‘Special Issue: Imaging Cell Architecture and Dynamics’ here. Thursday

Latin America Light Microscopy Fundamentals: Train-the-Trainer

Posted by Andrés Olivera, on 17 October 2024

From June 3-7, 2024, a dedicated team of imaging scientists ran the Latin America Light Microscopy Fundamentals Train-the-Trainer event in Buenos Aires. Twenty four imaging scientists from across Latin America and Africa were trained in how to run a fundamentals light microscopy course.

Featured image with David Gaboriau

Posted by FocalPlane, on 11 October 2024

Our featured image, acquired by David Gaboriau, shows human fibroblasts with mitochondria (Tom20) in yellow, alpha tubulin in pink and actin in grey. It’s a 3D-SIM image taken on a Zeiss Elyra PS.1, reconstructed in Zen and presented as a maximum intensity projection. Find out more about David’s research below: Research career so far: I’m originally a

vEM reveals the cellular composition of the Blood Nerve Barrier

Posted by Mario Elias Ortega Sandoval, on 11 October 2024

Using Serial Block-Face-SEM6 and AT-SEM, we characterized the cellular composition and interactions along EndoBVs7. Unlike the BBB, we observed that the vasculature within the endoneurium is not completely covered. Upon closer examination of the cells in contact with EndoBVs, we identified three distinct cell types frequently interacting with the vasculature.

Interview with Giulia Casal, the inaugural recipient of the Volume Electron Microscopy (vEM) Ambassador Travel Award!

Posted by Mario Elias Ortega Sandoval, on 11 October 2024

We congratulate Giulia for being the first recipient of the vEM Ambassador Travel Award! and thank her for advocating for our vEM Community! Giulia Casal is a PhD student in Prof. Alison Lloyd’s lab at the Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology (LMCB) at University College London (UCL), where she is studying the blood nerve barrier

Microscopy preprints – applications in biology

Posted by FocalPlane, on 4 October 2024

Here is a curated selection of preprints published recently. In this post, we share preprints that use microscopy tools to answer questions in biology.

STED User Group (BINA/Canada BioImaging), October 10, 12pm EST

Posted by Ethan A. Perets, on 3 October 2024

The next installment of the BioImaging North America and Canada BioImaging STED user group will take place via Zoom on October 10 at 12 pm EST. Andréanne Deschênes (Université Laval) will deliver a presentation, “Multicolor STED Nanoscopy”, followed by group discussion on topics of community interest. This user group is targeted at users of all experience levels, and

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