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

Event carbon calculator

Posted by Teodora Andreea Rînciog, on 30 June 2025

I am excited to announce the release of our event carbon calculator, our latest resource to support the creation of sustainable events. Estimate your event’s carbon footprint in five minute or less. Our event carbon calculator provides insights into the main drivers of your meeting’s greenhouse gas emissions, offers reduction scenarios to test and provides

New strategic funding award for the UK Euro-BioImaging Node

Posted by Georgina Fletcher, on 30 June 2025

Exciting news to share with you all! The UK Euro-BioImaging Node has been awarded £1.8 million in strategic funding from UKRI-BBSRC and UKRI-MRC over five years. This transformative investment will significantly expand access to cutting-edge imaging technologies for UK researchers. What this funding will deliver: This builds on our strong foundation: 14 facilities across 7

volume EM visualisation of synthetic scaffolds in bacteria

Posted by Janithri Wickramanayake, on 27 June 2025

by Matthew J Lee1, Judith Mantell2, Martin Warren1, Paul Verkade2, et al. 1University of Kent, 2University of Bristol Challenge Synthetic or Engineering Biology takes inspiration from nature to produce newly designed structures with the aim to improve its function, e.g. to produce “cell factories” with enhanced biological capabilities.We set out to produce a completely novel

Microscopy preprints – applications in biology

Posted by FocalPlane, on 27 June 2025

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

Illuminating the Brain: Microscopy Techniques in Neuroscience and My Applications in the Lab

Posted by Sally Horton, on 23 June 2025

Understanding the brain’s complexity requires more than theory or behaviour; it demands a look at the smallest units of structure and function. Microscopy has long been a cornerstone of neuroscience, evolving rapidly from conventional optical methods to cutting-edge super-resolution and electron techniques. This article explores how confocal microscopy, STORM, and electron microscopy are advancing our

Featured image with Seth Agyei Domfeh

Posted by FocalPlane, on 20 June 2025

Our featured image, acquired by Seth Agyei Domfeh, shows the nuclear localisation of interferon regulatory factor 9 (IRF9) in human hepatoma (HepG2) cells stimulated with interferon α (IFN-α). HepG2 cells were cultured on a poly-D-lysine-coated coverslip for 24 hours and stimulated with 1000 IU/ml IFN-α. At 24 hours post-stimulation, the cells were fixed using 4%

New insights into corneal development from vEM

Posted by Mario Elias Ortega Sandoval, on 17 June 2025

by Rob Young*, Kiranjit Bains*, Phil Lewis* and Andrew Quantock* *Biophysics Research Group, School of Optometry & Vision Sciences, Cardiff University, UK Challenge The unique transparency of corneal stromal tissue, essential for vision, is dependent upon the remarkable order of component collagen fibrils, which exhibit highly uniform diameter, spacing and orientation. However, processes involved in

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