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.

Create an account to share your story or to stay up-to-date with the latest news.

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Recent posts

Featured image with Krystyna Gieniec

Posted by FocalPlane, on 1 August 2025

Our featured image, ‘Unexpected guests’ acquired by Krystyna Gieniec, is a 2D culture of mouse mammary fibroblasts stained for Acta2 (magenta) and Vimentin (gold), with some contaminating epithelial cells stained for pan-Cytokeratin (cyan). The image was acquired using a Leica Stellaris 8 confocal microscope.

Reflecting on five years of FocalPlane

Posted by Helen Zenner, on 30 July 2025

We are celebrating FocalPlane’s fifth birthday following its launch in 2020. The idea of launching a microscopy community site came from discussions between Journal of Cell Science’s (now former) Executive Editor Sharon Ahmad and Sean Munro, Head of Cell Biology at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge and a Company Director at The Company

Microscopy preprints – new tools and techniques in imaging

Posted by FocalPlane, on 25 July 2025

Here is a curated selection of preprints posted recently on new tools and techniques in imaging. Let us know if we are missing any recent preprints that are on your reading list!

Bridging AI and Super-Resolution Microscopy: Highlights from the AI4Life Workshop & Hackathon at SMLMS 2024

Posted by Estibaliz Gómez-de-Mariscal, on 22 July 2025

In the days leading up to the Single Molecule Localization Microscopy Symposium (SMLMS) 2024, AI4Life hosted the Pre-symposium AI4Life Workshop & Hackathon: Trends in AI for Super-Resolution Microscopy at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) (now Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM)) in Portugal. The event brought together an interdisciplinary group of leading and early-career researchers

Exploring the Microcosmos through Foldscope-Frugal Science Microscopy in Focus

Posted by Aarushi Verma, on 18 July 2025

The third annual iteration of the Lodha Genius Programme at Ashoka University, Sonepat, featured a month-long workshop series for students of grades 9 and 10, introducing them to the intricate diversity of the microscopic world through the use of a frugal science innovation—the Foldscope. Much like the initiative described in this article on IndiaBioscience, this

Featured image with Maik Bischoff

Posted by FocalPlane, on 18 July 2025

Our featured image, acquired by Maik Bischoff, captures a portion of the testis from the fruit fly Drosophila hydei. Like all insect testes, it is enveloped by a muscle layer. F-actin was stained using phalloidin, making the muscle fibers visible, while DAPI staining revealed the multiple nuclei within each syncytial myotube. An antibody against Drosophila

Imaging in 2035: Sustaining Infrastructure Ecosystems & Advanced Technologies

Posted by Ethan A. Perets, on 16 July 2025

Join us for the 2025 BINA Community Congress, held jointly with the Global Bioimaging Exchange of Experience 2025, as part of Imaging in 2035: Sustaining Infrastructure Ecosystems & Advanced Technologies, in Montreal, Canada. (Register Here) These back-to-back events will bring the global imaging community together to shape the future of imaging science and technology, as we consider where Imaging

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