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.

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Recent posts

Ask Erin/Dear Beth – an image analysis tips and tricks video podcast

Posted by Beth Cimini, on 16 February 2026

Ask Erin/Dear Beth is an image analysis “video podcast” from Erin Weisbart and Beth Cimini of the Broad Institute Imaging Platform. Every 2 weeks, they hang out to answer real viewer questions about bioimage analysis, or just to talk about tips and tricks, old favorite resources, new favorite resources, or anything else related to image

Featured image with Jan Martinek

Posted by FocalPlane, on 13 February 2026

Our featured image is a spinning disk fluorescence micrograph, acquired by Jan Martinek, showing an Arabidopsis thaliana root that formed a spiral on a forgotten Petri dish lying flat on the bench. In this orientation, the root cannot grow downward gravitropically, so it keeps turning.

JCS snapshot: RNP1A regulates cell shape in Dictyostelium amoebas

Posted by FocalPlane, on 12 February 2026

In our latest JCS snapshot we hear from Mark Jacob, who, together with Yinan Liu, Douglas Robinson and team, found that the RNA-binding protein RNP1A regulates cell shape in Dictyostelium amoebas. In this snapshot, Mark takes us through the key findings from their research.