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

STED User Group (BINA/Canada BioImaging)

Posted by Ethan A. Perets, on 25 July 2024

The next installment of the BioImaging North America and Canada BioImaging STED user group will take place via Zoom on August 8 at 12 pm EST. This user group is targeted at users of all experience levels, and aims to give all members of the community a chance to share technical know-how by facilitating open discussion. Interested participants

Becoming part of the Global Image Data Ecosystem

Posted by Marianna Poli, on 25 July 2024

Biological, preclinical and clinical imaging technologies are a central part of life science research, medical research and clinical practice. Imaging encompasses a wide range of modalities that generate vast amounts of data which are crucial for diagnosing diseases, understanding biological processes, and developing new therapies. The raw images themselves are only part of the story.

An interview with Lisandra Vila Ellis

Posted by Mariana De Niz, on 23 July 2024

MiniBio: Lisandra Vila-Elis is Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at Northwestern University, where she studies the role of a newly discovered endothelial cell population in the lungs, and their relevance to gas diffusion and lung health and disease. Lisandra was born in Cuba, and moved to Ecuador at a young age. She then

Kidney elastic fiber network changes in Marfan’s Syndrome

Posted by Mario Elias Ortega Sandoval, on 19 July 2024

by de Souza RB*, Meek KM#, Lewis PN#, Pereira LV*. *Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, University of São Paulo, Brazil #StructuralbBiophysics Research Group, School of Optometry and Vision Sciences of the United Kingdom, Cardiff University, UK Challenge Marfan’s syndrome (MFS) is an autosomal dominant disorder that affects the connective tissue, resulting from a mutation

Featured image with Jovan Brockett

Posted by FocalPlane, on 19 July 2024

Our featured image, acquired by Jovan Brockett, shows a Drosophila melanogaster embryo undergoing syncytial nuclear divisions during early embryonic development. It was prepared using PFA fixation and hand dissected to remove the outer vitelline membrane. The image was captured using a Nikon Ti-E system fitted with a Yokagawa CSU-X1 spinning disk head, Hamamatsu Orca Flash

Prompt Engineering in Bio-image Analysis

Posted by Mara Lampert, on 18 July 2024

Prompt engineering and its importance Communication is key. This saying is not only true in day-to-day life, but also when interacting with Generative Artificial Intelligence, a system able to generate text, images or other output types in response to prompts. In prompt engineering, we use natural language to describe the task that a Large Language

JCS-FocalPlane Training Grants

Posted by Helen Zenner, on 15 July 2024

We are delighted to have awarded our first JCS-FocalPlane Training Grants to four early-career researchers who will be attending microscopy training courses over the coming months. Look out for their posts on FocalPlane to discover more about the researchers and the courses that they are attending! The next round of applications for training grants is

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