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Optical Microscopy and Imaging in the Biomedical Sciences (OMIBS, Aug 2024) - Woods Hole, MA

We are excited to announce the in-person 2024 "Optical Microscopy and Imaging in the Biomedical Sciences" (OMIBS) course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, USA.  The course will run this year from Aug 13th – Aug 23rd, 2024.   Please join us or encourage your lab members or colleagues to attend the late summer OMIBS course on beautiful Cape Cod!

Applications, including all letters of reference, are due by April 10th, 2024, and should be submitted via the course website at: https://join.mbl.edu/register/?id=7827cc8b-15ab-4cb8-974a-efd418508420&_ga=2.197509930.42064066.1709239932-359289501.1629400182

We hope to see you at the MBL this summer!

Alison North (Rockefeller University) and Joerg Bewersdorf (Yale University), Course Directors

Cost:  Tuition: $3,800.  Room and board: $950. Some limited financial assistance may be available, but unfortunately cannot cover the entire cost of attending.

Course overview: This 9-day course is limited to 24 participants to ensure a truly interactive, hands-on experience. It consists of interrelated lectures, laboratory exercises, demonstrations, and discussions that will enable the participants to obtain and interpret high quality microscope data, to understand and assess potential artifacts, to perform quantitative optical measurements, and to generate digital images for documentation and analysis that accurately present the data. The course also places a strong emphasis on appropriate sample preparation, including choice of fluorescent probes and fluorescent proteins, and tissue clearing and refractive index matching. Particular emphasis will be placed on ‘picking the right tool for the job’.

Topics to be covered include:

  • Fundamental principles of microscope design, image formation, resolution and contrast;
  • Transmitted light and fluorescence microscopy techniques;
  • Cameras, signal to noise ratio, digital image recording, processing and analysis, multispectral imaging;
  • Advanced fluorescence – fluorescent probes, fluorescent biosensors, TIRF, FRET, FLIM, FRAP, polarization of fluorescence, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy;
  • Digital image restoration/deconvolution, and 3-D imaging principles;
  • Confocal and multiphoton laser scanning microscopy and light-sheet microscopy;
  • Super-resolution techniques including localization microscopy, stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED), and structured illumination microscopy.

Course participants will have direct hands-on experience with state-of-the-art microscopes, a variety of digital cameras, and image processing software provided by major optical, electronics, and software companies. Instruction will be provided by experienced staff from universities and industry. Participants are encouraged to bring their own, fixed biological specimens, and to discuss individual research problems with the faculty.

Who will benefit? The course is designed primarily for research scientists, postdoctoral trainees, core facility directors/staff and graduate students working in the biological sciences. Non-biologists seeking a comprehensive introduction to microscopy and digital imaging in the biomedical sciences will also benefit greatly from this course.

Specimens: Live and fixed specimens will be provided for use in laboratory exercises and demonstrations. Participants can bring their own, fixed biological specimens and discuss individual research problems with the faculty. Attendees are also encouraged to make appointments with our highly experienced commercial faculty outside of scheduled classes to acquire data from their specimens using the available state-of-the-art equipment.

Academic faculty will include the following:

  • Antani, Jyot (Yale University)
  • Bewersdorf, Joerg (Yale University)
  • Bjornsson, Chris (Vendor faculty)
  • Fullerton, Stephanie (Vendor faculty)
  • Itano, Michelle (UNC Chapel Hill)
  • Jug, Florian (Fondazione Human Technopole) 
  • King, Sharon (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital) 
  • Kumar, Abhishek (MBL) 
  • La Riviere, Patrick (University of Chicago) 
  • Lavis, Luke (Janelia Research Campus) 
  • Legant, Wesley (UNC Chapel Hill) 
  • Lessard, Mark (Bates College) 
  • Leung, Jacqueline (Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID/NIH) 
  • McCall, Andrew (SUNY Buffalo) 
  • Mogessie, Binyam (Yale University) 
  • Murphy, Malea (Texas A&M University) 
  • North, Alison (The Rockefeller University) 
  • Richardson, Douglas (Harvard University) 
  • Rodriguez, Cristina (Yale University)
  • Ropp, Tessa-Jonne (UNC Chapel Hill)
  • Sathappan, Abbirami (Sidra Medicine, Qatar) 
  • Shaw, Sidney (Indiana University) 
  • Tantama, Mathew (Wellesley College)
  • Tebo, Alison (Janelia Research Campus)
  • Turnbull, Lynne (Vendor Faculty)

We are grateful to the following companies for their loyal and enthusiastic support of the OMIBS course:
Major support: Evident, Hamamatsu, Leica, Nikon, Zeiss Additional support:  89 North, Abbelight, Abberior, Andor, Arivis, Axiom Optics, BioVision, Bitplane, Bruker, Chroma, Coherent, Ibidi, Interherence, ISS, Mizar, Nanolive, Nikon, Okolabs, ONI, Panluminate, SVI, Thermofisher, Thorlabs, TomoCube and VisiTech, plus others who are yet to be confirmed!