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An Interview with Dr. Zhixing Chen

Posted by Subhajit Dutta, on 19 June 2024

Welcome to the FocalPlane Interview Series where we spotlight groundbreaking Asian-origin scientists pushing the boundaries of cell biology and microscopy. Today, we’re delighted to feature Dr. Zhixing Chen from the Peking University, China. In this exclusive interview, Dr. Chen unveils his transformative research on probe design, shares insights into his remarkable career path, and offers

Enhancing Global Access: interview with CZI grantee Uri Manor

Posted by Mariana De Niz, on 24 January 2024

OPEN DISSEMINATION OF NOVEL IMAGING TOOLS FOR THE RESEARCH COMMUNITY Uri Manor is an imaging scientist with a background in cell biology and computational methods. His project focuses on building new probes to improve and accelerate research, and on using artificial intelligence to break barriers in the way we do microscopy. What was the inspiration

StayGold variants explained!

Posted by Christophe Leterrier, on 19 December 2023

I figured it might be useful as a reference, so here’s a blog-ified version of a thread I posted on X about recently published monomeric variants of the StayGold fluorescent protein. Thanks to Helen Zenner of FocalPlane for the help! In 2022, the Katayama/Miyawaki labs published StayGold, a bright and stable fluorescent protein (FP) from

60 years of Fluorescent Proteins

Posted by Joachim Goedhart, on 4 October 2022

In talks about fluorescent proteins I usually include a timeline of events related to Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP). The timeline highlights some of the key moments in the history of fluorescent protein discovery and engineering. I am generally fond of timelines, since they provide a way to pay tribute to the pioneers, and other researchers

Affimers – small probes for big imaging experiments

Posted by Laura Hankins, on 9 August 2022

Antibodies have been used to label proteins of interest since the 1970s. However, their large size (around 15 nm long for IgG) makes the penetration of dense structures within the cell a challenge and places the fluorophore away from the target protein. This latter issue, known as a ‘linkage error’, particularly impacts accuracy and precision

A new Review in Journal of Cell Science discusses how specimens can impact image acquisition

Posted by Helen Robertson, on 13 April 2022

With the development of new imaging strategies and technologies and advanced computational analyses has come a body of literature addressing various aspects of optimising imaging and processing. However, the impact of the sample itself on the quality of the image attained has garnered less exploration. Fluorescent microscopy is dependant on two factors – the intensity

Primed conversion: the Basics

Posted by Konstantinos Kalyviotis, on 15 November 2021

It has been a bit more than 6 years since the first “primed conversion” article1 was published in May 2015 and around 3 years since I first heard about this new photoconversion technique. I recall that it was almost 1 year after I got my MSc in Greece when I contacted Dr Periklis (Laki) Pantazis

Using Nile Blue and Nile Red to visualise the presence of lipids in cryosectioned tissues

Posted by Stuart Fraser, on 14 September 2021

Lipids are crucial elements of mammalian (and non-mammalian) cell biology and yet lipids are challenging to visualise in situ. In comparison to proteins, which we can generate antibodies for, or carbohydrates, some of which we can detect using fluorescent lectins, there are relatively few lipid-specific fluorescent probes. Many lipids are highly conserved across species making

Considerations for expression of fluorescent proteins and imaging in mammalian cells

Posted by Daniel Cabezas de la Fuente, on 7 July 2021

Introduction to fluorescent proteins Fluorescent proteins have the property of absorbing light at one wavelength and emit light in a longer wavelength. These proteins were observed first in bioluminescent organisms known to humanity for centuries. We can find examples of light-emitting organisms in multiple taxa: from single cell organisms like bacteria, to vertebrates like fish.

A biologist’s checklist for calcium imaging and optogenetic analysis

Posted by Andrey Andreev, on 12 April 2021

Technological advancement constantly makes these methods more accessible, however, there are a number of understated complexities involved with these types of imaging-based experiments

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