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

Interviews and researchers’ testimonies from Biologists @ 100

Posted by Margarida Araujo, on 8 May 2025

During the Biologists @ 100 conference, we conducted and recorded interviews with a few researchers to get to know their work better, collecting their testimonies and feedback about the conference. At the end of the interview, researchers were asked to get their picture taken with a ‘polaroid frame’ and write a few keywords about their

Biologists @ 100 conference report

Posted by Margarida Araujo, on 8 May 2025

Biologists @ 100 conference highlights The Company of Biologists, a not-for-profit organization, plays a pivotal role beyond journal publishing by actively supporting biologists and the broader scientific community. At the recent Biologists @ 100 conference celebrating the 100 years of The Company of Biologists held in Liverpool from 24-27th March 2025, an early-career researcher (ECR)

Interview with Dr Benjamin Compans: From Academia to Industry in Super-Resolution Microscopy

Posted by Sally Horton, on 7 May 2025

In this interview, I sat down with Dr Benjamin Compans, A field Application Scientist at Abbelight (pictured above). Microscopy is more than just a tool; it’s a window into the intricate and often unseen world of biological structures. For many researchers, their first encounter with a microscope can be a defining moment in their scientific

Microscopy preprints – new tools and techniques in imaging

Posted by FocalPlane, on 2 May 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!

Biologists @ 100: Celebrating a century of supporting biologists and inspiring biology

Posted by VARSHA MAHAPATRA, on 1 May 2025

The Company of Biologists celebrated their centenary at the Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, UK. Held from March 24–27, this landmark event was more than just a celebration of history. It was an opportunity to reflect on a century of scientific progress, highlight the Company’s contributions to the scientific community, and address the challenges

Help shape the Node’s future by taking part in their survey

Posted by Joyce Yu, on 28 April 2025

The Node is turning 15 this year. If you’ve ever visited the Node to read, write and interact with the global developmental and stem cell biology community – thank you for your support! We would really appreciate any feedback you have about the Node, to make sure the community site is still relevant and useful

Featured image with Saurabh Chand Sagar

Posted by FocalPlane, on 25 April 2025

Our featured image, acquired by Saurabh Chand Sagar, presents a laser scanning confocal projection of the Malpighian tubules (MTs) from third instar wandering-stage (118 ± 2 hours post-eclosion) wild-type Drosophila melanogaster larvae. In the image, red denotes F-actin protein, green highlights Discs Large, a protein involved in maintenance of apicobasal polarity, and blue marks the

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