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.

Create an account to share your story or to stay up-to-date with the latest news.

Join or access here

Recent posts

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!)

Cytoneme Imaging Tips and Tricks

Posted by Christina Daly, on 19 January 2026

There has been a growing interest in visualizing long and thin membrane extensions. The field of intercellular connections has exploded, with elegant bioimaging studies focusing on structures like cytonemes, tunneling nanotubes (TNTs), intercellular/cytokinetic bridges (IB/CBs), and migrasomes. This enhanced interest in the intercellular communication facilitated by these extensions is largely due to the recent technological

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.

View more posts …