Workshops
This year, NESM is proud to offer the following excellent workshops, to be held on 1 May, 2014 at the Marine Biological Laboratory as the first day of our 31st Annual Workshops & Symposium.
Thursday, May 1
1:00 PM – Welcome
1:10 PM – Workshops Part I
2:30 PM – Coffee break
3:00 PM – Workshops Part II
5:00 PM – Closing
Workshop Abstracts
Digital Image Analysis with ImageJ – Dr. Lai Ding, Harvard University
(Capacity: 30)
This workshop taught by Dr. Lai Ding, PhD., manager of the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center Enhanced Neuroimaging Core, introduces ImageJ, its basic functions, and its macro programming capabilities. Using data from real imaging projects, Dr. Ding will demonstrate common image analysis tasks such as basic filtering processing, cell counting and measurement. Macro writing will be covered to demonstrate how to automate a series of ImageJ commands, to process datasets automatically and to store results as desired.
Introduction to Scanning Probe Microscopy – Brent Lapointe, Nanosurf Inc. & Dr. Fettah Kosar, Harvard University
(Capacity: 8)
Since the introduction of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope by Binning and Rohrer more than 25 years ago, and the subsequent development of the Atomic Force Microscope thereafter, these tools have become indispensable for the study of both nanoscale features and more broadly, physical characteristics of materials. These tools help researchers visualize, analyze, and manipulate objects at the nanoscale.
Following optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, Scanning Probe Microscopy may fittingly be called a third generation technique for the evaluation of these material properties. The scanning probe microscope greatly enhances lateral resolution compared to optical techniques and offers true three dimensional topographical information as compared to the SEM. A further consequence, the Scanning Probe Microscope may also be used in biologically relevant conditions including ambient temperature, liquid environment, and living cells/tissue.
Looking forward, Scanning Probe Microscopy has not stood still. New applications have been developed for nanomanipulations including coupling with fluidics, tissue diagnostics, and ultrafast scanning. With the advent of these new techniques, the Scanning Probe Microscope is well positioned to remain an important tool for nanoscale analysis into the future.
Cathodoluminescence Imaging – Maximizing Compositional Analysis in Mineralogy: A practical guide to commercial and exploration mineralogy techniques, and how they can be supported with selected CL imaging. – Dr. Tony Mariano, geological consultant
(Capacity: 5)
This workshop will illustrate how correlating different types of microscopy can aid in the analysis of the mineral components of whole rocks. The workshop will include demonstrations of how a wide range of microscopy techniques can be utilized to this end, including polarized light petrography, cathode-luminescence, UV-luminescence, and scanning electron microscopy combined with energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy.
Symposium
Friday, May 2
9:00 AM – Registration & Continental Breakfast
10:00 AM – Welcome
10:10 AM – “Characterization of InGaN Nanowires by Electron Microscopes” Dr. Wei Guo, University of Massachusetts Lowell
10:50 AM – “Rafts in Colloidal Membranes” Dr. Zvonimir Dogic, Brandeis University
11:30 AM – Exhibiting Vendor Session
12:30 PM – Buffet lunch
1:30 PM – “3-D and In-situ Characterization of Nanomaterials in the Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope” Dr. Ilke Arslan, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
2:30 PM – Afternoon break
3:00 PM – “How ultrastructural analyses of neuronal synapses provide new insights into Parkinson’s Disease” Dr. Jennifer Morgan, Marine Biological Laboratory
3:40 PM – “Single-molecule analysis of the Cytoskeleton Assembly” Dr. Amy Gladfelter, Dartmouth College
4:20 PM – Closing
Symposium Abstracts & Bios
“Characterization of InGaN Nanowires by Electron Microscopes”, Dr. Wei Guo, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Abstract
Intense research focusing on miniaturization of dimension in semiconductor devices has been developed in recent years. This trend is expected to be limited by fundamental physical constraints. Therefore an intense effort to search for new manufacturing procedures alternative to conventional top-down approaches have been strongly motivated. Self-organized bottom-up methods are well suited for the preparation of significantly small structures (nanometer-scale), as required for device applications based upon quantum effects. Due to the nanoscale structures, electron microscopes are playing a unique role in the characterization of nanomaterials. In this context, structural properties of nanowires grown on Si were first studied using field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM). High density nanowires (5~ 1011cm-2) were successfully grown on silicon substrate with diameter from 20 to 60nm, and they exhibited almost homogeneous height with tenability from a few hundred nanometers to a few micrometers depending on the growth time. Furthermore, nanowires with different density were achieved by change the initial Gallium metal deposition condition. High resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM) study also shows that the nanowires are structurally uniform and free of dislocations. The selected area diffraction (SAD) pattern reveals that the entire wire is single crystal with wurtzite crystal structure. Especially, the HR-TEM of “nanobamboo” shows coherent InGaN and GaN layers grown alternatively along the growth orientation with no dislocations and sharp interface.
Bio
Dr. Wei Guo received his BS in Microelectronics from Peking University, Beijing, China, in 2003 and his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Brown University in 2005 and 2008, respectively. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI, and Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY. Currently he is an Assistant Professor of Physics and Applied Physics Department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA. His doctoral and postdoctoral research consisted of growth, fabrication and characterization of the III-V compound semiconductor nanomaterials, nanowires and quantum dots, and their device applications including Lasers, LEDs, detectors and solar cells.Dr. Guo’s research is focused on the growth, fabrication and characterization of III-V nanomatierlas (quantum dots and nanowires) and the device applications. His group’s expertise involves molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of InAs quantum dot lasers and InGaN nanowire LEDs and lasers. Dr. Guo is interested in the area silicon photonics, high efficiency multijunction solar cells and high efficiency white LEDs.
“Single Molecule Analysis of the Cytoskeleton Assembly,” Dr. Amy Gladfelter, Dartmouth College
Abstract
Septins assemble into filaments and higher-order structures that act as scaffolds for diverse cell functions including cytokinesis, cell polarity, and membrane remodeling. Despite their conserved role in cell organization, little is known about how septin filaments elongate and are knit together into higher-order assemblies. Using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), we determined that cytosolic septins are in small complexes suggesting that septin filaments are not formed in the cytosol. When the plasma membrane of live cells is monitored by total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy, we see that septin complexes of variable size diffuse in two dimensions. Diffusing septin complexes collide and make end-on associations to form elongated filaments and higher-order structures, an assembly process we call annealing. Septin assembly by annealing can be reconstituted in vitro on supported lipid bilayers with purified septin complexes. Using the reconstitution assay, we show that septin filaments are highly flexible, grow only from free filament ends and do not exchange subunits in the middle of filaments. This work shows for the first time that annealing is an intrinsic property of septins in the presence of membranes and demonstrates that cells exploit this mechanism to build large septin assemblies. I will also discuss our initial work with Tomomi Tani at MBL to combine TIRF with polarization to examine septic assembly processes.
Bio
Dr. Gladfelter is a cell biologist in the Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth and an adjunct scientist in Cellular Dynamics at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, MA. Her work focuses on how the cytoplasm is organized and how the cytoskeleton self-assembles into scaled structures. She trained at Princeton (AB) with Bonnie Bassler, Duke (Ph.D.) with Danny Lew and UniBasel Biozentrum (post-doc) with Peter Philippsen before coming to Dartmouth in 2006.
“3-D and In-situ Characterization of Nanomaterials in the Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope,” Dr. Ilke Arslan, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Abstract
All nanomaterials are three-dimensional (3-D) in nature whether they are used for catalysis, energy storage, semiconductors, or medicine. While (scanning) transmission electron microscopes ((S)TEMs) are typically used to analyze these materials, the images are 2-D projections of 3-D objects. In order to understand the true nature of the nanomaterial, a 3-D tomogram is necessary on the nano- or atomic scale. Traditionally, this involves taking a series of images of the sample at different tilt angles, normally ranging between -70° to +70° every 1 to 2 degrees, and using these two dimensional images to reconstruct a three dimensional volume of the sample. This tilt range may increase depending on the sample geometry and the holder used, but there is a constant battle against an artifact in the reconstruction called the missing wedge. This effect may be reduced greatly by performing dual axis tomography, or overcome completely using new holder technologies, but each technique has its pros and cons. Another approach that has been taken in the last 3-5 years is the development of novel algorithms that greatly reduce the effects of the missing wedge and even provide atomic resolution 3-D tomograms from just a few projection images.
With recent advances in in-situ microscopy, a new era in microscopy has arrived that allows for the dynamic imaging of materials under reaction conditions. It is no longer sufficient to image materials in vacuum conditions, but to get closer to the conditions in which the material will be used, such as high temperature, liquid environments, gas environments or a combination thereof. Combining an in-situ or ex-situ experiment with STEM tomography is a very powerful method for materials characterization. The benefits and limitations of all these methods will be discussed through examples of different inorganic materials.
Bio
Ilke Arslan received her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California at Davis, and is currently a Senior Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. She was recently honored by President Obama with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Before joining PNNL, Ilke was on the faculty of the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department at the University of California, Davis, and still holds an Adjunct Professor position there. She has held fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Royal Society, and the Truman Fellowship at Sandia National Labs. Her interests include catalysis, energy storage materials, and technique development in tomography, in-situ liquid and gas microscopy, and EELS.
“How ultrastructural analyses of neuronal synapses provide new insights into Parkinson’s Disease,” Dr. Jennifer Morgan, Marine Biological Laboratory
Abstract
Parkinson’s Disease is a common movement disorder that affects 1-2 million Americans. The genetically inherited form of Parkinson’s Disease is associated with overexpression or mutation of the synuclein gene, resulting in increased expression and aberrant aggregation of the protein. It is thought that the aggregation of synuclein causes neurotoxicity and subsequent neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s Disease. While a great deal is known about how synuclein overexpression affects neuronal cell bodies, much less is known about how excess synuclein affects synapses, the contacts between neurons where the protein is normally localized. Indeed, many of the synuclein aggregates in Parkinson’s Disease are found at the synapses. My lab has therefore developed a new model for examining the effects of excess synuclein of synapses. We do so by taking advantage of the large size of lamprey giant synapses and their experimental accessibility. In this presentation, I will share how we use light and electron microscopy, as well as 3D reconstructions, to examine the effects of excess synuclein on synaptic structure. Our studies revealed that excess synuclein dramatically impairs synaptic vesicle trafficking, which has implications for the mechanisms underlying PD pathology.
Bio
Jennifer Morgan is an Associate Scientist and the Associate Director of the Eugene Bell Center for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering at the MBL. She received her Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Duke University and continued her studies as a postdoc in Cell Biology at Yale University. Dr. Morgan’s research program focuses on understanding how neuronal synapses work and how synapses are restored during recovery from spinal cord injury. She is the recent recipient of the Janett Rosenberg Trubatch Career Development Award from the Society for Neuroscience and a University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. Outside of the laboratory, Jennifer enjoys playing the piano and bass guitar and throwing pottery.
“Rafts in Colloidal Membranes,” Dr. Zvonimir Dogic, Brandeis University
Abstract
Clusters of finite size are rare and their assembly usually requires sophisticated engineering of either subunit shape or interactions. We assemble thermodynamically stable, finite-sized rafts from simple rod-like particles and organize these rafts into higher-order superstructures. Unlike conventional methods of cluster assembly that are mediated by isotropic solvents, we assemble colloidal rafts by dissolving rodlike particles in 2D colloidal membranes. We visualize raft-induced membrane distortions and relate them to effective membrane-mediated raft-raft interactions. Subsequently, using monodisperse rafts as adaptable building blocks we assemble self-healing raft crystals and other hierarchical structures. These experiments establish a robust method for multiscale organization of rodlike particles and demonstrate that membrane-mediated liquid-liquid phase separation can be fundamentally different from that of conventional bulk mixtures. They also reveal the existence of repulsive membrane-mediated chiral interactions that may contribute to the stability of lipid rafts in biological membranes.
Bio
Zvonimir Dogic received his BA (1995) and PhD (2001) in physics from Brandeis University, USA, and spent his postdoctoral studies at the Research Center Jülich in Germany as a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow from 2001-02, and at the University of Pennsylvania from 2002-03. After an appointment at Harvard University as a Rowlatt Junior Fellow from 2003-07, he returned to Brandeis University as an assistant professor. Since 2010, he has been an associate professor of physics. His research interests lie in elucidating rules that govern self-assembly of materials, with a particular emphasis being placed on the role the particle’s shape and chirality play in these assembly processes.
