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Update on the open letter to Nikon Small World in Motion, and join today’s webinar on AI and the future of imaging

Posted by pleasantine, on 14 October 2026

A little over a week ago, we asked the FocalPlane community to consider signing an open letter to Nikon Small World in Motion about this year’s first-place video. The video was captioned as abnormal beating of airway cilia from a child with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), and its submitter later acknowledged that parts had been

Live event - Nikon Small World and AI: Where Should Scientific Imaging Draw the Line?

Posted by FocalPlane, on 13 October 2026

In this quick-fire webinar, Peter O'Toole will be joined by Florian Jug, Pleasantine Mill and Simon Cleary, to explore questions around the use of AI, drawing on perspectives from microscopy, cilia biology, and AI image analysis.

Featured image with Shang-Wu Shih

Posted by FocalPlane, on 9 October 2026

Our featured image, acquired by Shang-Wu Shih, shows ionocytes distributed along the gill filaments of marine medaka. These specialized epithelial cells are responsible for maintaining systemic ion and acid–base homeostasis. Gill tissues were fixed and immunostained for Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase (NKA, red), a marker of ionocytes, and actin (green/cyan), which outlines the tissue architecture. Images were acquired

Please sign and share: open letter to Nikon on the 2026 Small World in Motion winner

Posted by pleasantine, on 8 October 2026

Dear microscopy friends and colleagues, You may have seen that the 2026 Nikon Small World in Motion competition was won by a video captioned as showing ‘abnormal beating of airway cilia from a child with primary ciliary dyskinesia‘. It has since been shared by major news outlets worldwide. The submitter has said that the regions

JCS snapshot - Outer kinetochore proteins form linear elements to regulate vesicle transport

Posted by FocalPlane, on 7 October 2026

In our latest JCS snapshot we hear from Shane Kowaleski who, together with Joshua Bembenek and team, discover that outer kinetochore proteins form linear elements to regulate vesicle transport. In this snapshot, Shane take us through the key findings from their research.

How do your core facilities compare globally? Results from the 2021 International Microscopy and Flow Cytometry Surveys

Posted by kczymmek@danforthcenter.org, on 6 October 2026

By Jessica Back, Kirk Czymmek, Derek Davies, Peter O'Toole How does your facility stack up against others around the world? How many instruments per staff member is typical? What does everyone charge for an assisted session on a cell sorter? These are questions that core facility managers and directors wrestle with constantly, often without any reliable

Microscopy preprints: applications in biology

Posted by FocalPlane, on 5 October 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.

The Company of Biologists Workshop - Membrane Function: Insights from Cellular Diversity and Evolution

Posted by FocalPlane, on 28 September 2026

Applications are open for early-career researchers to apply for funded places to attend this Workshop.

FocalPlane features... cell migration recordings with Ankita Jha, Raphaël Clément and Katrina Velle

Posted by FocalPlane, on 25 September 2026

On 17 September 2026, we held the second webinar in our FocalPlane features… series on emergent models and quantitative analysis of cell migration, organised by Pablo J. Sáez and Valeria Venturini. In this webinar, we heard from Ankita Jha on ‘Decoding bleb driven signaling in cancer disease progression’, Raphaël Clément on ‘Navigating without neurons or

Featured image with Ádám Soós

Posted by FocalPlane, on 25 September 2026

Our featured image, acquired by Ádám Soós is titled “Guided by GDNF: enteric neural crest cells weaving the future gut nervous system.” It shows enteric neural crest-derived cells streaming out from an embryonic day 6 chicken midgut explant, forming an interconnected migratory network on a fibronectin-coated surface. The culture was exposed to 20 ng/ml GDNF,

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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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