Phototoxicity Workshop - Friday 9 July

Scientific Organisers: Dr Philippe Laissue, Dr Claire Brown and Professor Maddy Parsons

14.00 - 17.00 hours BST

In fluorescence microscopy, phototoxicity describes the phenomenon by which the light used for fluorescence excitation leads to physiological changes in the observed living sample. These changes may go unnoticed or may damage the sample - and can lead to erroneous conclusions drawn from the experiment. In this workshop, we give participants an overview of the problem of phototoxicity. We aim to first give you the basics to better understand phototoxicity - from useful definitions (phototoxicity, intensity, exposure etc.) to key concepts. We then discuss some concrete approaches for assessing, minimising and reporting phototoxicity in different live imaging experiments. As this a very broad area - with a challenging diversity of different biological model systems (e.g. cells, small organisms, plants...), fluorescent probes and microscope modalities - we include many references to relevant literature. We end with a summary of key considerations - and hope to have ample time for engaging discussions!

Invited Speakers will include:

Professor Claire Brown

McGill University

Dr. Brown has been working in the field of quantitative light microscopy for over 25 years. As director of the Advanced BioImaging Facility (AIBF) at McGill University in Montreal, she oversees 16 state-of-the-art microscopes and an expert staff who serve ~300 users from diverse research areas in physical, life and health sciences. Through her work with the ABIF they have run more than 90 workshops and courses training thousands of researchers in fundamental and advanced imaging techniques including the Montreal Light Microscopy Course (MLMC). She also runs a research program focused on the development and application of biophysical techniques to understand the molecular mechanisms that regulate normal and pathological cell migration. Projects also focus on microscopy standards and quality control and optimal live cell imaging conditions to minimize phototoxicity. Knowing that we are stronger together and can learn so much from each other she is actively involved in several national and international networks including Canada BioImaging (CBI), BioImaging North America (BINA) and Global BioImaging (GBI).

Dr Philippe Laissue

University of Essex

Philippe is a lecturer in bioimaging at the University of Essex. He has developed imaging approaches and instrumentation for quantified microscopy in diverse research areas, from neuroanatomy and cytoskeletal dynamics to models of human diseases and photobiology of photosynthetic organisms. His current focus is on minimally invasive live imaging for marine and biomedical applications. He is a highly experienced teacher and instructor, having set up or contributed to numerous international conferences and world-class courses. After a PhD at the University of Basel in Switzerland, he did a Post-Doc at the University of Kent, then directed the bioimaging unit at the University of Essex. As Royal Society Industry Fellow from 2015-2018, he developed light-sheet illumination with Cairn Research. He has twice been recipient of a Whitman fellowship at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, USA, working on coral imaging; this also led to the first prize in the Nikon Small World in Motion competition in 2019. As an academic, he now enjoys teaching cell biology and bioimaging, leading his own research group and working with many amazing collaborators and co-organisers.

This workshop is free to attend, you can add it to your schedule when registering to attend.



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