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Featured image with Denise Scuffi

Posted by FocalPlane, on 30 January 2026

Our featured image, acquired by Denise Scuffi, shows stomata – small pores surrounded by a pair of specialised cells known as guard cells – from Arabidopsis thaliana expressing the fluorescent biosensor roGFP2-Orp1 in the cytosol, which enables in vivo monitoring of intracellular H₂O₂ dynamics.

JCS snapshot: Tracking coordinated cellular dynamics in time-lapse microscopy with ARCOS.px

Posted by FocalPlane, on 29 January 2026

In our latest JCS snapshot we hear from Maciej Dobrzyński, who, together with Benjamin Grädel and colleagues, developed ARCOS.px, a software tool to automatically identify and track coordinated dynamic cellular events in time-lapse microscopy movies.

Seeing Chromatin Scaling with Cell Size, from Interphase to Mitosis

Posted by Manuel Mendoza, on 26 January 2026

Melike Lakadamyali, Jérôme Solon and Manuel MendozaAs cells divide during development, their size evolves dramatically while DNA content remains constant. This raises a fundamental question: does chromosome compaction adjust to these size changes so that genomes are still segregated faithfully? This question has been with us for a long time. More than a decade ago,

Microscopy preprints – applications in biology

Posted by FocalPlane, on 23 January 2026

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

Imaging spotlight: visualising synaptic vesicle fusion by cryo-ET

Posted by FocalPlane, on 21 January 2026

In this paper highlight from Jana Kroll and colleagues, we hear about their research combing optogenetic stimulation with plunge freezing and cryo-electron tomography to study synaptic vesicle fusion.

Imaging spotlight: U-ExM atlas of microbial eukaryotes

Posted by FocalPlane, on 20 January 2026

In this paper highlight from Hiral Shah and colleagues, we learn about their ultrastructure expansion microscopy (U-ExM) atlas of over 200 cultured planktonic eukaryotes. This post includes technical advice for ExM users and highlights the open-access resource that they have generated for cytoskeleton or marine microorganism aficionados (and microscopy sciart lovers!)

Imaging spotlight: Initiation of chromosome congression deconstructed by multi-scale live lattice light-sheet and super-resolution microscopy

Posted by Kruno Vukušić, on 16 January 2026

In this highlight, Kruno Vukušić and Iva M. Tolić describe how they use multi-scale live lattice light-sheet and super-resolution microscopy to decipher the earliest steps of chromosome congression.

Featured image with Ivan Radin

Posted by FocalPlane, on 16 January 2026

Our featured image, acquired by Ivan Radin, shows a few epidermal cells of tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) leaf, expressing cytosolic GFP. There is a significant variability in expression levels between cells. The brightest region is the nucleus, which is surrounded by a large central vacuole. The cytosol is restricted to the cell periphery. Transvacuolar strands connect

Imaging with… Unidad de Microscopía Avanzada, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UMA UC)

Posted by FocalPlane, on 15 January 2026

In our ‘Imaging with…’ blog post, we meet the team at Unidad de Microscopía Avanzada, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

JCS snapshot: the endoplasmic reticulum protein FAM134B acts as a regulator of mitochondrial morphology

Posted by FocalPlane, on 14 January 2026

In our latest JCS snapshot we hear from Sebabrata Maity, who, together with Oishee Chakrabarti and colleagues, discovered that the endoplasmic reticulum protein FAM134B acts as a regulator of mitochondrial morphology.

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Microscopy-related articles from our journals

Toggle-Untoggle – a cell segmentation tool with an interactive user verification interface J Cell Sci 2025 138: jcs264154
The ratio of Wnt signaling activity to Sox2 transcription factor levels predicts neuromesodermal fate potential Development 2025 152: dev204661
The short isoform of Tango1 is dispensable for zebrafish survival but is required for skeletal patterning and integrity Biology Open 2025 14: bio062117

Microscopy-related preprint highlights

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