RMS LM and EM Summer Schools July
The Royal Microscopical Society is holding its two- day Light Microscopy Summer School at the Biology Department of the University of York UK, on 8- 9 July, covering both the principles of light microscopy and practical issues surrounding light microscopy. After introductory presentations, teaching is predominantly through hands-on practical sessions. Suitable for both novices and more experienced users wanting to gain a greater understanding of the microscope, the Society remarked that participant feedback every year is always fantastic. Students usually come from a range of backgrounds, within both research and commercial organisations. All benefi ted greatly from the course and left with increased understanding and skills.
Day 1 takes participants through the basic principles of confocal microscopy and then trains them, through hands- on practice, how to confi gure and image multicolour, multidimensional samples using a confocal microscope.
Day 2 builds on the experience of Day 1 and enables participants to try FRAP and spectral profi ling. The scientifi c organiser for both courses is Peter O’Toole, RMS president, University of York.
RMS President Peter O’Toole (Credit: RMS)
This is immediately followed by a hands-on Confocal Course at the University on 10-11 July. This two day annual meeting utilises many different sample types and fl uorescent probes (DNA stains, classic antibody labels and fl uorescent proteins) which are chosen to best demonstrate particular problems and techniques. Focus is always on the techniques they enable and the problems they generate, which will be applicable to any sample types. The two days consist of short tutorials followed by hands-on practice.
The Society’s annual Electron Microscopy Summer School is taking place in Leeds on 15-19 July. This aims to provide a basic training in both the theory and practice of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The course covers imaging, diffraction and chemical microanalysis, as well as the highly important area of sample preparation.
The Scientifi c organisers are Louie Aspinall, University of Leeds; Nicole Hondow, University of Leeds and and Rik Brydson, RMS Vice President, University of Leeds.
More information online:
ilmt.co/PL/4mQm 62680pr@reply-direct.com
Microscopic probe holds promise for early cancer diagnosis
Researchers at the University of Nottingham have created a world-fi rst endoscopic device with the ability to detect changes in cell hardness, an indication which could suggest the presence of tumour cells.
Softer than normal cells, early stage cancer cells are able to squeeze through tight gaps and rapidly spread throughout the body, known as metastasis. During this process, collections of cells modify their surrounding environment to create stiff tumours that protect them from outside threats.
The new device can 3Dimage individual cells with a hair-thin endoscopic probe, meaning it will be possible to perform histology (i.e. investigating microscopic cellular tissue) based on abnormal stiffness at the single cell level inside the human body for the fi rst time.
Dr Salvatore La Cavera III, lead-author and Nottingham Research Fellow in the Optics and Photonics Group at the University of Nottingham, said: “We aim to develop new endoscopic technologies that make diagnostics faster, safer and clearer for both patients and clinicians. Typically, histopathology requires destructive, invasive biopsies that are not only uncomfortable and potentially damaging for the patient, but require signifi cant logistics such as chemical processing, transportation and analysis.
“Our device makes it possible to ‘feel for a stiff lump,’ but on a single cellular scale, meaning we could catch cancer early at microscopic cell scales rather than large malignant tumour scale. It is non-invasive, non-toxic and very promisingly, is related to technology that can quantitively determine the presence of cancer cells using artifi cial intelligence – providing a chronically understaffed area with a much-needed solution to a real-world problem that the industry has faced for decades.”
The tool achieves high imaging resolution, detecting the stiffness of objects down to billionths of a metre (nanometres), through a physical phenomenon called Brillouin scattering, where a laser beam interacts with the natural stiffness of a specimen. The team used this to help biologists visualise the 3D stiffness of a microscopic organism, called Caenorhabditis elegans - a free-living worm, known scientifi cally as a nematode. They were able to provide visualisation and material information about an elusive part of the organism’s anatomy, the cuticle, that up until now had only been imaged through electron microscopes in non-living conditions.
Caenorhabditis elegans (Credit: University of Nottingham)
Dr Veeren Chauhan co-author and Assistant Professor in Whole Organism Analytics at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham, said: “We have demonstrated the capabilities of this exciting next-generation technology to reveal the physical surface properties of a fully formed microscopic organism in unprecedented detail. Nematodes are an excellent model for human biology and are considered to be the most completely understood animal on the planet in terms of genetics, neurology and developmental biology.”
The new probe, she added, had the potential for enabling researchers to follow the development of an individual nematode’s physical surface properties throughout its entire life cycle, from egg to adult, in approximately three days, which would take upwards of 18 years when considering human development.
More information online:
ilmt.co/PL/m4vw 62681pr@reply-direct.com
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