In recent years, the optical visualization of biological samples has made great strides, becoming one of the important pillars of biotechnology. It has even been possible to visualize such things as the rearrangement of neural circuits in living brain tissue and the motion of a transcriptase reading one base of DNA at a time.
As modern optical microscopes with their computer-controlled image-processing devices have become so complex, technical workshops on optical microscopy aimed at active researchers (from post-docs to professors) have become popular in the U.S. and Europe. The workshops there serve as focal points not only for technique dissemination but also for encounters between industry and academia and for technology evaluation. The first such workshop was the Analytical & Quantitative Light Microscopy course at the Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, U.S.A.) which is run regularly to this day, where Japanese companies also attend with new products for evaluation, and where they collect information.
Since 2005, in cooperation with the Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, optical instrument manufacturers and others, we have held an annual 5-day workshop that includes lectures and hands-on training using the latest equipment. Topnotch instructors are invited from academia and industry, and we carry out hands-on technical training with the latest instruments brought in by manufacturers as well as AIST's equipment. More than 160 attendees, made up of scientists from industry and academia, graduate students and the like, all gather each year at AIST with the latest equipment and reagents provided by more than 10 manufacturers of optical instrument and reagents. Both lecturers and attendees take "the spirit for learning" very seriously. The program is run by the Bioimaging Society and AIST in cooperation with universities and research institutes.
Summary of the 4th live cell imaging workshop (Oct. 2008)
Companies in attendance: 12 (5 optical microscope makers, 2 camera makers, 2 makers of reagents, and 3 miscellaneous)
Attendees: 111 industry-related participants, 49 academicians, and 17 students
Equipment used: 4 confocal microscopes, 2 total internal reflection microscopes, 3 EMCCD cameras, etc. (The total list price value of equipment brought in by companies came to more than 150 million Japanese yen.)
Hand-on training syllabus (last year's course):
- Optical microscope basics (preparation of samples, Köhler illumination, phase contrast microscopy, differential interference microscopy and fluorescence-based methods)
- GFP imaging 1 (introduction of GFP into cultured cells, confocal imaging, FRAP, time-lapse observation, spectrum imaging, and observation of multiply tagged cells (CFP, GFP, YFP, etc.)
- GFP imaging 2 (time-lapse observation of a neuronal growth cone's cytoskeleton, evanescence microscopy term, spectral microscopy, fluorescence spectrum observation and fluorescence-based single molecule observation)
- Calcium imaging (high-speed confocal microscopy, use of a high-speed CCD camera, and calcium imaging of cultured cells)
- Brain slice imaging (two-photon excitation microscopy, observation of a mouse brain synapse, and observation of a nematode synapse)
- Introduction of new technologies by the various microscope manufacturers
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Snapshot of a lecture along with sample
images taken during the hands-on training
(a) Snapshot of a lecture
(b) Neurons within a mouse brain (observed by two-photon excitation microscopy)
(c) Hippocampal neurons (observed by two-photon excitation microscopy)
(d) Fluorescence image recorded simultaneously in 32-channels (observed by spectrum confocal microscopy)
(e) 4-color staining with CFP (nucleus), GFP (actin), YFP (Golgi), and DSRed (mitochondria) (observed by spectrum confocal microscopy) |
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Summary of the 5th live cell imaging workshop
Date: Oct. 5-9, 2009
This year, we worked together with the National Institute for Material Science (NIMS) to organize the workshop. 15 % of the hands-on training was held at NIMS.
Companies in attendance: 13 (4 optical microscope makers, 4 camera makers, 2 makers of reagents, and 3 miscellaneous)
Attendees: 144 (75 industry-related participants, 55 academicians, and 14 students)
Equipment used: 5 confocal microscopes, 1 total internal reflection microscopes, 1 laser beam machining device, 5 EMCCD cameras, etc. (The total list price value of equipment brought in by companies came to more than 150 million Japanese yen.)
Due to the recession, there was a decrease of the number of attendees, but, on the other hand, there was an increase in the number of companies in attendance. Therefore, the workshop held was of the same size and content as the previous years.
Evanescence microscopy: When total internal reflection of incident light occurs between two layers with different refractive indices such as glass and water, a very faint light called an evanescent wave arises that is restricted to within roughly one wavelength (a few hundred nm) of the surface. An evanescence microscope exploits this phenomenon, enabling imaging in which superfluous light is suppressed outside the miniscule sector that one wants to observe.
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