You are invited to the New England Society for Microscopy's 32nd Annual Spring Workshops & Symposium at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts! The meeting will be held over two days - Thursday, April 30th, will feature 3 workshops which will allow a more in-depth exploration of state-of-the-art microscopy techniques. Registration and information about the Workshops can be found here. Friday, May 1st, will consist of a day-long Symposium featuring four technical talks, six 6-minute "lightning" talks, a poster session, an exhibiting vendor session, and a buffet lunch. We are currently accepting abstract submissions for poster sessions or lightning talks. Please submit abstracts to info@nesmicroscopy.org by April 15th.
Schedule
9:00 AM – Registration & Continental Breakfast
10:00 AM – Welcoming Remarks - Dr. Jennifer Ross, President 2015
10:10 AM– “Expansion Microscopy” , Fei Chen & Paul Tillburg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
10:50 AM – "Lightning Talks"
11:30 AM – Poster & Vendor Session
12:30 PM – Buffet lunch
1:30 PM – Keynote: "Optical Super-resolution Microscopy for Live-Cell Imaging", Dr. Joerg Bewersdorf, Yale University
2:30 PM – Afternoon break
3:00 PM – "Spectroscopic characterization of quantum materials using a cryogenic ultra-high vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy", Dr. Ilija Zeljkovic, Boston College
3:40 PM – "From Material Science to Infectious Disease: Using Art to make the Microscopist's World More Approachable" Dr. Geoff Williams, Brown University
4:20 PM – Closing
Speaker Abstracts & Bios
“Expansion Microscopy” , Fei Chen & Paul Tillburg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract:
In optical microscopy, fine structural details are resolved by using refraction to magnify images of a specimen. We discovered that, by synthesizing a swellable polymer network within a specimen, it can be physically expanded, resulting in physical magnification. By covalently anchoring specific molecules located within the specimen directly to the polymer network, molecules spaced closer than the optical diffraction limit can be isotropically separated and optically resolved, a process we call expansion microscopy (ExM). Thus, this process can be used to perform scalable super-resolution microscopy with diffraction limited microscopes. ExM represents a new modality of magnification, and enables scalable, multi-color super-resolution imaging of fixed cells and tissues.
Bio:
Fei Chen studied Electrical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology before pursuing his Ph.D. at MIT in the laboratory Professor Edward Boyden. In Dr. Boyden's laboratory, Fei Chen, along with Paul Tillberg, pioneered Expansion Microscopy, a novel super-resolution technique for large volume imaging on conventional optical microscopes. His broad research experience ranges from DNA nanotechnology, protein engineering, optics, and chemistry. He is interested in further developing expansion microscopy technology for analysis of biological tissues with nanoscale precision and molecular annotation.
"Optical Super-resolution Microscopy for Live-Cell Imaging" ,Dr. Joerg Bewersdorf, Yale University
Abstract:
Breaking the diffraction limit of light which had constrained the resolution of light microscopes in the far field for more than a century has revolutionized fluorescence imaging of sub-cellular structures [1]. Targeted switching techniques such as STED microscopy and single-molecule switching (SMS) approaches (FPALM, PALM, STORM, GSDIM, dSTORM, …) have demonstrated many impressive applications at 25 nm and beyond in a diverse range of fields. Most applications have been performed in fixed cells, however, and live-cell super-resolution imaging is still rare because of additional hurdles such as imaging speed, photobleaching, availability of probes and photo-toxicity.In this presentation, I will provide an overview over our current method developments in STED and SMS nanoscopy towards routine live-cell application. I will, in particular, discuss recent advances in speeding up SMS nanoscopy with sCMOS camera detection and novel algorithms [2], and the use of recently developed live-cell compatible fluorophores for multicolor STED as well as SMS nanoscopy. Up to video-rate imaging has been possible with these approaches.Disclaimer: J.B. declares financial interest in Bruker Corporation and Hamamatsu Photonics.
Bio:
Joerg Bewersdorf studied physics in Freiburg and Heidelberg in Germany. He earned his doctoral degree at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany, in 2002 under the mentorship of Dr. Stefan Hell (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014). After a 4-year research appointment at The Jackson Laboratory in Maine, USA, he joined Yale University where he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the School of Medicine and has a secondary appointment in Biomedical Engineering.His research focuses on the development and application of new fluorescence microscopy techniques for biomedical research. Over the last 18 years, he has significantly contributed to the development of multiphoton microscopy (first multifocal multiphoton microscope) and different super-resolution microscopy techniques (4Pi microscopy, PALM/STORM, STED microscopy).
"Spectroscopic characterization of quantum materials using a cryogenic ultra-high vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy", Dr. Ilija Zeljkovic, Boston University
Abstract:
A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is a powerful tool traditionally used to image the surface structure of materials with sub-nanometer spatial resolution. Our work focuses on utilizing ultra-high vacuum cryogenic STM in combination with spectroscopic techniques to simultaneously investigate structural and electronic properties of quantum materials. In this talk, I will demonstrate how real-space imaging of scattering of electrons on the surface allows us to deduce energy, momentum, spin and orbital properties of electrons. I will further show how scanning tunneling spectroscopy allows us to detect subsurface impurities and discover their effect on the local electronic density of states. The techniques discussed here are highly applicable to a wide variety of electronic materials, such as superconductors, semiconductors and insulators.
Bio:
Ilija Zeljkovic is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Physics at Boston College working with Prof. Vidya Madhavan. He earned his dual B.S. degree in Physics and Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis in 2007, and received his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University in 2013. As a graduate student working in the laboratory of Prof. Jennifer Hoffman, he used scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy to investigate the interplay of electronic and structural properties in high-temperature superconductors. He is currently investigating emergent phenomenology in topological Dirac materials using a combination of thin film growth techniques and scanning tunneling microscopy. His broad research interests encompass a variety of quantum materials, including topological insulators, unconventional superconductors and transition-metal dichalcogenides.
“From Material Science to Infectious Disease: Using Art to make the Microscopist's World More Approachable” , Dr. Geoff Williams, Brown University
Abstract:
Microscopists at all levels generally feel at home in the nano-world. We routinely take for granted the knowledge about what surfaces and samples look like below the resolution limit of the human eye. Yet the process and transition from answering scientific questions with our tools to creating relatable visual images that meet artistic goals first, is not always as easy as just printing out our images. Over the last 5 years or so I've been drawing on my training and experience in a new way. Generating not just scanning electron microscope images but creating cohesive art installations. This is a story of two collections in particular; Edible Nanoscape, and Nanoscape at Firefly Gallery. They have had both unexpected responses and overwhelmingly positive interactions with viewers who begin thinking they are just looking at art, but the detail and shapes in the samples visually challenge them, leaving them impressed and enlightened, ultimately more informed and curious to learn more. Thinking about our tools and our skills as instruments of art has the potential to enhance the reach and understanding of science especially in the current societal time of click-bait headlines.
Bio:
Geoff Williams’ whole life has been a blend of music, art, science and technology. Everything clicked as an undergraduate at Connecticut College with the discovery of Electron Microscopy and being Two classes short of adding two minors (Studio Art and Chemistry) to a Major with Honors and Distinction in Botany is a microcosm of his complex journey. The opportunity to combine visual arts, science, technology and mastery of a skill as challenging as the violin he plays was fully realized at Michigan State University. Geoff transitioned from a graduate program at MSU to running the Imaging facility at Central Michigan University. He is now in his 10th year as Manager of the Leduc BioImaging Facility at Brown University, racing cyclocross at the Elite Masters level all over New England, and making time to cultivate an artistic outreach for scientific imaging, amidst raising two active daughters.
Location
Swope Conference Center
7 M B L Street
Woods Hole, MA
02543
Parking
Free parking facilities are located on-site. Upon arrival, please stop at the Swope Center to pick up a parking pass. Visitors will park at the Bar Neck lot.
Housing