Course - Microscopy methods in biomedicine 2018

The five-day theoretical course with practical demonstrations and exercises, is intensively devoted to modern methodologies of light and electron microscopy. The program of the course is every year updated to reflect new trends in the light microscopy field. The course covers general methods and fundamental approaches in microscopy and also cutting edge techniques like super-resolution light microscopy, fast confocal spinning disc acquisition or lightsheet microscopy and imaging of whole living organisms.

In the theoretical part, the course will cover fundaments of light microscopy, image creation, and principles of confocal microscopy, tricks of main superresolution methods and many practical aspects like live cell imaging techniques and approaches, and also microscopy sample preparation recommendations.

During the practical part of the course, participants will see demonstration of general Koehler illumination adjustment, widefield fluorescence microscope, fluorescence macroscope, confocal scanning and also spinning disc microscopes, Lightsheet microscope and also advanced superresolution microscopes – STED, SIM and Quantitative phase microscope. The course also deals with the processing of the image data, however, priority is to acquire practical skills in microscopy techniques (image analysis is the main topic of the course Processing and analysis of microscopic images in biomedicine ). After completing the course, the participant will be able to determine what is appropriate microscopic technique used to answer the research questions, including the preparation and data processing for publication. Detailed methodological guidance and technical training are part of the more specialized courses. The course is primarily intended for PhD students and young researchers in the biomedical fields. A number of doctoral committees counts this course towards the fulfillment of student's study obligations. The course will be taught in English.

The course is an introduction to both light and electron microscopy with solid theoretical background extended with many practical presentations. The lectures and also practical sessions are taught by experts and scientists from the field or by product specialists from leading microscopy companies.