Join us for a series of short research talks and live demonstrations of advanced microscopy. Talks will be given by several external speakers, including the Medicines Discovery Catapult, discussing the research made possible by cutting-edge imaging methods. There will also be plenty of opportunities to get hands-on with the microscopes themselves. This half-day event will showcase the research enabled by techniques such as:

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  Laser-free confocal
  Create crisp 3D sectioned images of many specimens, large or small including model organisms, such as C.elegans and Zebrafish, fungus and plant specimens, cell cultures and tissue specimens with the capability of time lapse data capture for live cell imaging. These images allow researchers to gain information to help in numerous research areas, including cancer research, neuroscience and developmental biology.
  
  
  

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  STED super-resolution
  A completely new class of nanoscope with unprecedented resolution down to 20nm. STED technology is used in cancer research, neurobiology, and developmental biology to resolve structures that can not be seen with conventional confocal microscopy due to the diffraction-barrier. It has helped to describe the Actin/Spectrin organisation in neurons and the symmetry of the nuclear pore complex.
  
  
  

• Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles: Extremely bright fluorophores for fluorescent imaging applications
  Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles (CPNs) are novel fluorophores with increased sensitivity and performance for fluorescent imaging techniques. The CPNs are based on fluorescent polymers developed for the visual display industry and are extremely bright and very stable (resistant to photo-bleaching in storage or under laser excitation, pH 4-10, and temperatures up 120°C). The CPNs can be linked to antibodies or other targeting molecules and used to label tissues or cells in immunofluorescent studies or flow cytometry. Their intense brightness additionally allows them to be used in binding studies, increasing sensitivity in assays such as ELISAs, Western blots and dot blots. The CPNs also contain iron oxide, making particles magnetic, which can be used to isolate the nanoparticle and any material they have bound to, as well as in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and multimodal imaging studies.
  
  
  

• Correlative light and electron microscopy
  Correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) is the combination of fluorescence microscopy with high-resolution electron microscopy. The combination of the labelling power of fluorescence imaging and the high resolution structural information provided by electron microscopy makes correlative microscopy the perfect tool for studying the complex relation between form and function in biology.
  
  
  

• Fluorescence lifetime imaging
  
  
  

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  Scanning and transmission electron microscopy
  Image almost any sample material in nanometer resolution, from tissue sections, cell cultures, nanoparticles and even micelles in solution. This invaluable data supports detailed histopathology, immunocytochemistry, oncology and molecular biology. Label-free mapping of chemical elements gives additional information on ultrastructure and feature identification.

Agenda

• 13:00 - 13:10 Introductions
  
  
• 13:10 - 13:30 Electron microscopy
  
  
• 13:30 - 13:50 Laser-free confocal
  
  
• 13:50 - 14:10 STED super-resolution
  
  
• 14:10 - 15:00 Break for demos
  
  
• 15:00 - 15:20 Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles: Extremely bright fluorophores for fluorescent imaging applications
  
  
• 15:20 - 15:40 Correlative light and electron microscopy
  
  
• 15:40 - 16:00 Cryo-electron microscopy for drug delivery
  
  
• 16:00 - 16:40 Break for demos
  
  
• 16:40 - 17:00 Medicines Discovery Catapult "Advanced Microscopy in Drug Discovery"