The RTmfm working group “SMILE”, dedicated to smart microscopy, is organizing its first national meeting in Aussois from November 15 to 20, 2026.

This event is open to engineers, PhD students and researchers interested in learning how to use smart microscopy.

Over six days of hands-on sessions and scientific exchanges, participants will gain an overview of smart microscopy, including introductions to different types of coding.

Take a look at the full programme below

Event details

Venue: AUSSOIS , Centre CNRS Paul Langevin

Deadline to register: July 31st, 2026

Maximal participants: 30

Dans cet échange, découvrez le projet de Rodrigue, comment s’est déroulée cette collaboration et ses ambitions futures!

English-speaking readers, the interview can be found in English at the end of the article.

Rodrigue, Marine et Magalie, pouvez-vous nous partager votre parcours?

Rodrigue Kantati (R.K): Je suis un enseignant-chercheur togolais depuis 5 ans au département de Physiologie animale de la Faculté des Sciences de l’Université de Lomé (Togo).

J’ai effectué un doctorat en Pharmacologie des Substances Naturelles, spécialité neuropharmacologie avec une thèse portant sur l’évaluation des propriétés neuroprotectrices de trois espèces de la flore togolaise, et co-dirigée entre les universités de Rouen Normandie (France) et de Lomé.

En plus des cours magistraux dispensés aux élèves de Licence et de Master de l’Université, je mène des travaux de recherche au sein de l’unité SRU Physiopathologies-Substances Bioactives et Innocuité (PSBI). Je m’intéresse à la validation scientifique des plantes médicinales locales, celles dotées de propriétés neuroprotectrices, capables de faire face à des pathologies neurodégénératives telles que la maladie d’Alzheimer, la maladie de Parkinson, ou encore la mort neuronale consécutive à des situations d’ischémies cérébrales.

Je travaille actuellement sur l’étude des propriétés neuroprotectrices de Sterculia setigera, une plante médicinale de la flore togolaise.

Marine Pernes (M.P): Je suis diplômée depuis 2025 d’un Master sur les Biotechnologies et bioproduits pour la Santé, après avoir obtenu une Licence en Biochimie. Je travaille actuellement en tant qu’Assistante Ingénieure Inserm en expérimentation et instrumentation biologique à PRIMACEN depuis février 2026, plus précisément au niveau de la préparation des échantillons avant microscopie.

Magalie Bénard (M.B): Je suis docteure en Biologie Cellulaire et spécialiste des Neurosciences, recrutée à l’Inserm en 2005 sur la plateforme d’imagerie de Rouen pour m’occuper de la partie photonique. Actuellement, je suis Ingénieure de Recherche Inserm et responsable de la plate-forme d’imagerie HeRacLeS-PRIMACEN. Je m’occupe plus particulièrement de la préparation des échantillons et des équipements de microscopie photonique pour le vivant.

Rodrigue, comment avez-vous vécu le programme Imaging 4 All – Access Track?

R.K: Des moments mémorables : chaque journée passée sur la plateforme PRIMACEN a été une journée de découverte et d’apprentissage, dans une atmosphère conviviale et stimulante!

Magalie et Marine, pourquoi est-il important pour vous d’accueillir des bénéficiaires du programme Imaging 4 All?

M.B et M.P: L’accueil de (futurs) collaborateurs du programme Imaging 4 All est très important pour nous afin de permettre aux bénéficiaires un accès aux équipements et aux technologies avancées et diversifiées peu accessibles dans leur environnement de travail actuel (pays africain). L’échange d’expertise est très enrichissant et il est toujours très intéressant de pouvoir partager nos connaissances et nos savoir-faire autour de projets comme celui de Rodrigue.

Rodrigue, pourquoi avoir choisi la plateforme PRIMACEN?

R.K: Je ne saurai vous dire si c’est moi qui ai choisi PRIMACEN ou si c’est PRIMACEN qui m’a choisi (Rires). La ville de Rouen en général, et ce depuis l’époque de ma mobilité doctorale Erasmus (2015-2016), m’a toujours porté chance. Je me sens très bien à Rouen, une sorte de connexion entre moi et cette ville extraordinaire. Enfin, je crois que je m’y suis toujours senti à l’aise parce que des gens formidables m’y ont toujours bien accueilli et bien encadré. Je voudrais donc dire merci au Dr David Vaudry (HDR, Inserm), ancien directeur de PRIMACEN et co-directeur de ma thèse de doctorat, et à toute la nouvelle équipe, notamment au Dr Magalie Bénard (ma collaboratrice sur le programme Imaging 4 All), à Mlle Marine Pernes son assistante, et à l’actuel directeur Dr Ludovic Galas.

Sans cette collaboration, je n’aurais pas pu poursuivre mes travaux de recherche!

L’Université de Lomé ne dispose pas encore du plateau technique pour cultiver des neurones et réaliser de l’imagerie sur les cultures neuronales.

Magalie et Marine, comment la plateforme a-t-elle bénéficié de cette collaboration?

M.B et M.P: Cette collaboration nous a permis d’avancer de manière significative sur un projet entre nos deux structures avec l’aide financière d’Imaging 4 All de Global Imaging. Mais elle fut aussi l’occasion de partager d’agréables moments et de travailler en commun pendant un mois avec un collaborateur que je connais depuis sa thèse réalisée à Rouen. Pour finir, cette collaboration fut aussi pour nous l’occasion d’intégrer Marine, tout juste arrivée sur la plateforme, à un projet complet, de la culture des cellules, leurs différenciations et leurs traitements à l’acquisition et l’analyse des images.

Rodrigue, Magalie et Marine, en quoi cette collaboration a-t-elle enrichi vos approches scientifiques?

R.K: Cette collaboration nous a permis d’approfondir les données existantes sur les propriétés neuroprotecteurs de Sterculia setigera, notamment en abordant au niveau cellulaire les mécanismes de la neuroprotection : la neuritogenèse et la dynamique mitochondriales, à l’aide de trackers et sondes spécifiques, et de l’imagerie en time-lapse et en très haute résolution.

M.B et M.P: D’un point de vue scientifique, ce projet nous a permis de découvrir l’effet significativement protecteur d’un extrait de Sterculia setigera, issu d’un arbre d’Afrique. Nous avons pu visualiser par microscopie confocale avancée et mesurer cette action sur des neurones préalablement cultivés, et plus spécifiquement au niveau de la forme et de la dynamique des mitochondries.

Rodrigue, Magalie et Marine, prévoyez-vous de poursuivre cette collaboration?

R.K: Oui! C’est vital pour moi, car comme mentionné plus haut, le plateau technique local de l’Université de Lomé ne me permet pas d’avancées majeures en pharmacologie. Seules des collaborations de ce niveau peuvent me permettre d’exister en tant que chercheur en neurosciences, et de continuer par améliorer et affiner mes compétences en restant au contact de mes pairs en France, et au contact également des nouvelles technologies.

À terme, ceci permettra d’une part de renforcer les échanges avec PRIMACEN, et d’autre part de faire émerger véritablement l’enseignement et surtout la recherche en Neurosciences-Neurobiologie à l’Université de Lomé.

M.B et M.P: Oui! Nous restons en contact avec Rodrigue pour les étapes de valorisation des résultats qui ont été très concluants et nous travaillons sur l’élaboration d’une publication de ces résultats. Ce fut un réel plaisir de travailler avec Rodrigue et nous espérons avoir l’occasion de l’accueillir à nouveau dans un futur proche.

The Sino-French BioImaging Symposium 2026 is coming to Bordeaux from October 19 to 21, 2026, for three days dedicated to Super-Resolution Microscopy for Biological Imaging.

Organized in the framework of the CNRS International Research Network – BioImage, SFBS 2026 will bring together leading international scientists to explore the latest advances in super-resolution microscopy, advanced optical imaging and quantitative biology.

The programme is gradually being unveiled, with exciting scientific sessions, invited talks and key topics that will shape this international symposium. Take a look!

Good news! The deadline for abstract submission and early bird registration has been extended to June 30, 2026.

Find more information, submit your abstract and register now!

Could you introduce yourself?

I am a physicist by training. After my PhD (in 2006) I joined a cell biology lab to work on a microscope prototype. I also started developing image analysis and modelling software within the same lab.

I then worked for some time as an independent consultant, before joining the CENTURI multi engineer platform in Marseille, and France-BioImaging two years later in 2022.

I tried early on to deploy OMERO in my lab (in 2009, I did not succeed), I am convinced good data management is both a good practice and a huge time saver for research teams in the long run.

At France BioImaging, I am a research software engineer in the FBI.data team. As the senior engineer in the team, I overview software design and the exchanges with our national and international partners.

You are strongly involved in FBI.data project, what are the main goals of this team?

The main focus of the project is the development and deployment of the BioImage Cloud solution.

The goal is to provide the French research community with tools and standards to ease microscopy data management, federate computation and storage resources and help the adoption of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) practices.

What are the origins of BioImaging Cloud? How did this idea first emerge?

The project developed as part of the ANR “equipex” project Mudis4LS. The overall objective of this project, a collaboration between the French Bioinformatics Institute (IFB) and FBI, is to advance the French Government Open Science roadmap.

In practice, for bioimages, the stated goals imply a lot of technical and human constraints:

• we have to manage data with huge disparities in shape and size, that are produced in facilities siloed inside a local network, with often restricted availability of IT staff.
• furthermore, FAIR data culture is still developing in the field, so we also need to offer easy to use tools, as a way to favor the change of mindset toward an open science / FAIR culture.

So we started by stating these constraints explicitly, and developed the tool that would satisfy them.

In simple terms, how does BioImage Cloud work?

BioImage Cloud works at two levels. The lower one is the network layer between a facility and a mesocentre, the regional datacenter hosting the service. BioImage Cloud relies on setting up a ‘tunnel’ out of the facility’s private network toward the mesocenter. The strength of the solution is that this is done securely and reduces the IT work load involved with data transport. Of course users need not concern themselves with this layer, but it’s actually quite important that it is there.

The second level is an ensemble of software tools that provide users with a way to annotate, transport and share their data. In not too much detail, once properly described, the data are copied into the federated storage and imported into OMERO, the standard tool for microscopy data management. From there, they can be shared with collaborators, collaboratively annotated, and (soon) analysed on the mesocenter high performance computing resources.

What are the main benefits for the users?

First and foremost it is easier to access all the microscopy data created in your project, with more entry points, and a standard organization and annotation.

Concretely, this means that a PhD student can readily share their latest experiment results with their advisor, and the latter can access those results from anywhere, including once the thesis is over and the student is gone.

For the experimenter, rich annotations means it is easy to filter through experimental conditions, or write the material and methods section.

It also makes life much easier for bioimage analysts, as relevant metadata (e.g. the scale of the image) is readily available in the system, and API access allows to seamlessly shift from a prototype to batch processing of large datasets.

From a practical point of view, what does a user need to do to use BioImage Cloud?

First you need to belong to a French research institution, to create an account on the platform. To import data in the solution, you need access to a collection server, provided by the microscopy facility you work with.

With that set up, data import works in two steps: you first need to upload the data themselves through FTP on the collection server and second trigger the import in OMERO by uploading a spreadsheet describing the data.

Creating this spreadsheet is the most time intensive part of the process, as we ask our users for a detailed description of the experiment behind the data. Yet, the spreadsheet can be if you repeat the experiment, are slightly altered to account for new experimental conditions. So the process is faster and easier after the first time you or someone on your team use the service.

On which facilities is BioImage Cloud already available?

As of today, 8 servers are deployed in 7 cities. For the south-east part, BioImage Cloud is available in Montpellier for all MRI (CRBM + IGH), Marseille in Luminy, Strasbourg at IGBMC, Lyon at LyMic and for the south-west Nantes (at IRS), Rennes at INRIA and Paris at IBENS.

Two additional sites are under deployment, Grenoble and Toulouse, and 5 more servers will be deployed before the end of 2026.

What are the next steps for BioImage Cloud?

There are many new features down the road. The ones I’m most excited about are:

• the support of the OME-ZARR format, adapted to big data, for example from light sheet or spatial omics experiments;
• the automated submission of published data to BioImage Archive (in collaboration with the IFB madbot team);
• the easy access to high performance computing for bioimage analysts, e.g. for heavy deep learning workflows.

What message would you like to share with imaging facility staff or researchers who may be interested in using BioImage Cloud?

First, that they are very welcome and we are here to help understand their use cases!

We hold open desk sessions every Monday and Wednesday afternoon, so the door is open. A big goal for us this year is to adapt the solution to their usage, so we are eager for feedback.

Second, the tool is new so there are bugs, so I’d ask for their patience! We hope we’ll have more and more users this year that will help consolidate and shape a nice tool.

If you jump in early, you’ll be able to brag in a few years that you were there in the heroic era, to not miss that opportunity!

If you are interested in BioImage Cloud, you can find useful links at the end of our dedicated article, including access to the open desk sessions and the mailing list.

You can also watch the replay of the FBI Connect webinar, where Guillaume Gay presented BioImage Cloud and its main features.

Over the past few years, image analysis has become an essential step in the production and interpretation of microscopy images. As bioimaging experiments generate increasingly large and complex datasets, image analysis now plays a central role in transforming imaging data into meaningful scientific insights.

To support this rapidly growing field, the Network of European BioImage Analysts (NEUBIAS) was founded in 2016. NEUBIAS played a key role in structuring the European bioimage analysis community and in promoting the recognition of the bioimage analyst profession, positioned at the interface between biology, physics, computer science and data science.

Building on this success, an international consortium of researchers, including Florian Levet (Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience, Bordeaux Imaging Center), received funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in 2023 to extend this effort beyond Europe and establish a sustainable global organisation dedicated to bioimage analysis. This initiative led to the creation of GloBIAS, the Global BioImage Analysts’ Society.

In an article published in Nature Methods⁽¹⁾, the GloBIAS community presents the origins of the society, its missions and the actions implemented to support the development of bioimage analysis worldwide.

Over the years, this European initiative progressively opened up to international partners and inspired other bioimaging communities, including in North America, Latin America, Asia and Oceania. GloBIAS emerged from this momentum, with the ambition to create a sustainable global network for the entire bioimage analysis community.

GloBIAS aims to become a true “global hub for bioimage analysis” by bringing together a wide range of profiles, including bioimage analysts, developers, bioinformaticians, research software engineers, biologists, physicists, educators and scientists from various disciplines.

To address the needs of this international community, GloBIAS focuses on several key missions: fostering knowledge exchange, encouraging collaboration, promoting training, organising events, and collectively addressing emerging challenges in the field.

To better identify the needs and expectations of the community, GloBIAS conducted an international survey among bioimage analysts. The results helped structure several concrete actions, including the creation of new working groups dedicated to training and education, high-performance computing and cloud computing, annual events and publications. The society also organises monthly seminars and international workshops to encourage knowledge sharing and skills development within the community.

Through these actions, GloBIAS aims to democratise access to bioimage analysis resources, strengthen the recognition of the bioimage analyst profession and create an international platform for exchange, helping the community develop shared solutions to scientific, technical and professional challenges.

To learn more and join the network, visit the GloBIAS website.

(1) Corbat, A.A., Walther, C.G., de la Ballina, L.R, Condon, N.D., Felder, A.A., Schätz, M., Schmerl, B., Sugawara, K., Prats, C., Klemm, A., Miura, K., Sampaio, P., Tischer, C., Levet, F*., D’Antuono, R.*, Cimini, B.A.*, Haase, R*. GloBIAS: strengthening the foundations of bioimage analysis. Nat Methods (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-026-03060-7

*co-corresponding authors

The France-BioImaging Preclinical Microscopy Working Group is pleased to organise its 4th webinar, which will take place on 18 June 2026, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

This webinar will feature two presentations dedicated to intravital imaging and animal welfare, followed by an open discussion.

Programme

2:00 pm – Welcome and introductory remarks

2:05 pm – Intravital microscopy physiology and pathology: from whole organs to cell, sub-cellular structures and single molecules – Roberto Weigert (Center for Cancer Research)

2:55 pm – Animal welfare in oncology: preventing and taking action. Application to intravital imaging –
Karine Ser-Le Roux (Institut Gustave Roussy)

3:45 pm – Open discussion

Here’s the connection link to join the webinar: Webinar Preclinical Microscopy Working Group | Microsoft Teams | Meetup-Join

The SFBS 2026 Scientific Symposium, hosted in Bordeaux from October 19 to 21, 2026, will be dedicated to super-resolution and advanced microscopy. On this occasion, renowned international experts will share their latest research and exchange with attendees on their vision of the field.

We are also pleased to reveal three new invited speakers in the programme: Ricardo Henriques, Francesca Pennacchietti and Wei Ji! Discover their background and current research work in this article.

If you are also interested in presenting your work at SFBS 2026, the abstract submission deadline has been extended! Apply here before June 15, 2026 for a chance to give a talk or present a poster.

Ricardo Henriques

He established his first independent group at UCL in 2013, opened a satellite laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute in 2017, was promoted to Full Professor at UCL in 2019, and moved the group to Portugal in 2020, first at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência and then to ITQB NOVA in 2024.

The lab works at the interface of live-cell super-resolution microscopy, AI-driven bioimage analysis, and host-pathogen biology, organised around one recurring question: how do you see more of a living system while disturbing it less? Methods that emerged from that question (QuickPALM, SRRF, eSRRF, NanoPyx, ZeroCostDL4Mic, DL4MicEverywhere) are used in thousands of labs and helped make deep-learning microscopy accessible to biologists with no computational background.

His current programme builds adaptive nanoscopy for long-term imaging of viral and bacterial infections, paired with shared infrastructure that keeps the resulting AI tools open and reusable. He co-founded FocalPlane and AGRAFr.

Francesca Pennacchietti

Her work explores how the unique photophysical properties of these proteins can be harnessed not only to achieve nanoscale resolution but also to advance bioimaging toward spectral multiplexing, minimally invasive imaging, and biosensing.

By bridging the fields of super-resolution microscopy and photoreceptor biology, she aims to enable real-time visualization and control of cellular processes with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution.

Wei Ji

He has pioneered a series of interferometric single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) methods, including ROSE, ROSE-Z, and ROSE-3D. These techniques localize fluorescent molecules using intensity information from multiple excitation patterns of an interference fringe, achieving higher precision than conventional centroid fitting under the same photon budget. He has also developed cryogenic correlated light, ion, and electron microscopy (cryo-CLIEM), a method that enables the preparation of cryo-lamellae guided by three-dimensional confocal imaging.

Dr. Ji has published numerous papers in high-impact journals such as Nature Methods, and his work has been recognized as one of the Top Ten Advances in Life Sciences in China. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, the CAS Young Scientist Award, the Xplorer Prize, and the China Youth Science and Technology Award.

Don’t miss this opportunity to meet these experts during SFBS 2026! Join us in Bordeaux from October 19 to 21, 2026!

Would you like to share your work at SFBS 2026? Good news: the abstract submission deadline has been extended! Apply before June 15, 2026 for a chance to give a talk or present a poster.

The Bordeaux Imaging Center, a France-BioImaging facility, has secured new structural funding to strengthen its biological imaging capabilities. Supported by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region and the European Union through FEDER (European Regional Development Fund), two major projects led by the Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience and the Bordeaux Imaging Center have been selected: MINFLUX and IMPACT.

With nearly €3 million in FEDER funding, complemented by investments secured through France 2030 and the State-Region Plan Contract (CPER), almost €5 million will contribute to the development of imaging technologies for the Bordeaux scientific community.

MINFLUX and IMPACT: two structuring projects for biological imaging

The MINFLUX project will enable the installation of the first MINFLUX microscope in France and south-western Europe. Installed at the Bordeaux Imaging Center, this equipment represents a major advance for observing individual molecules with nanometric precision.

The IMPACT project will equip the BIC with new multiphoton imaging tools to explore molecular interactions within thick living tissues with enhanced depth and precision. These technologies will open up new perspectives in a wide range of fields, from neuroscience and cell biology to microbiology, plant biology and oncology.

Strengthening imaging capabilities in Bordeaux

These investments are part of a broader effort to develop optical and electron imaging technologies in Bordeaux. This reinforcement will also include the acquisition of a Cryo-FIB-SEM, a unique instrument in the Bordeaux region, made possible via France-BioImaging BIOGEN project within the framework of France 2030 investment plan.

Together, these instruments will help provide the scientific community with access to advanced imaging technologies capable of observing living systems at different scales, from tissues to molecular structures.

By consolidating its technological capabilities, Bordeaux confirms its position among Europe’s leading hubs for biological imaging, serving research, innovation and scientific collaborations.

As a national research infrastructure, France-BioImaging supports the development and access to advanced biological imaging technologies across France. Through its facilities, including the Bordeaux Imaging Center, the infrastructure contributes to strengthening the technological environment available to the life sciences community and to supporting scientific excellence at national and European levels.

The ANERIS consortium gathered in Barcelona for its final in-person meeting, marking an important milestone after four years of collaborative work dedicated to developing and validating innovative technologies for marine ecosystem monitoring.

Representing CNRS and France-BioImaging, Caroline Thiriet, Perrine Paul-Gilloteaux and Fabrice Cordelières contributed to discussions on technology validation, dissemination and community engagement. Through its participation in ANERIS, France-BioImaging has helped bring expertise from the bioimaging community into a new application domain: operational marine biodiversity monitoring.

A highlight of the meeting was the presentation of Case Study 1, which showcased the scientific results and technological advances achieved through the project. As part of this session, Perrine Paul-Gilloteaux presented one of the advanced data products developed within the case study, illustrating how advanced imaging systems, image restoration methods and AI-powered analysis pipelines can be combined to generate continuous biodiversity observations in marine observatories. Together with the deployment of multiple sensing technologies, these developments demonstrate the technological maturity reached within ANERIS and the potential of the framework for operational marine biodiversity monitoring tools supporting environmental sciences.

ANERIS also highlighted the importance of collaboration between European Research Infrastructures. The participation of France-BioImaging alongside Euro-BioImaging has helped strengthen exchanges between imaging experts, marine observatories and environmental research communities, fostering the transfer of technologies, expertise and best practices across disciplines.

As the project enters its final phase, our focus now turns toward dissemination and uptake. Together with ANERIS partners, we are preparing a dedicated workshop later this year to introduce the Operational Marine Biology (OMB) products developed during the project to a broad audience, including researchers, infrastructure staff, environmental stakeholders and potential end users.

A great example of how research infrastructures contribute not only to technology development, but also to training, knowledge transfer and the long-term impact of scientific innovation.

The SFBS 2026 Scientific Symposium, hosted in Bordeaux from October 19 to 21, 2026, will be dedicated to super-resolution and advanced microscopy. On this occasion, renowned international experts will share their latest research and exchange with attendees on their vision of the field.

Today, we are pleased to unveil three new speakers joining SFBS 2026: Sandrine Leveque-Fort, Christophe Leterrier and Yujie Sun, all experts in super-resolution microscopy. Discover their work and expertise in today’s article.

If you are also interested in presenting your work at SFBS 2026, the abstract submission deadline has been extended! Apply here before June 15, 2026 for a chance to give a talk or present a poster.

Sandrine Lévêque-Fort

In 2001, Dr. Lévêque-Fort joined the CNRS to develop innovative fluorescence microscopy strategies combining functional and structural imaging. Her research has focused on advanced FLIM methodologies and, more recently, on super-resolution microscopy approaches aimed at overcoming the diffraction limit.

Her current work seeks to provide nanoscale structural and functional information in living cells through the development of novel optical microscopy concepts and instrumentation, supported in particular by European Research Council (ERC) funding. Part of these developments contributed to the creation of Abbelight in 2016, a company dedicated to super-resolution microscopy technologies.

Dr. Lévêque-Fort has received several distinctions for her scientific achievements and leadership. She was awarded the Irène Joliot-Curie Prize in 2020 and was named Knight of the French National Order of Merit.

Christophe Leterrier

Christophe Leterrier leads the NeuroCyto lab in Marseille, where his team uses advanced microscopy techniques to directly observe molecular assemblies at the nanoscale in neurons, uncovering how these structures organize the neuron and shape its physiology.

Yujie Sun

Dr. Sun is the associate dean of CFT, deputy director of NBIC, deputy chief engineer of the national multimode transcale biomedical imaging facility, and has been serving on a number of professional scientific organizations, including ASCB, BPS, and Chinese Biophysical Society.

Dr. Sun has been developing advanced single molecule imaging and manipulation techniques to study cellular structures and processes. He has published five books (chapters) and more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, and undertaken 10 national scientific research projects.

Don’t miss this opportunity to meet these experts during SFBS 2026! Join us in Bordeaux from October 19 to 21, 2026!

Would you like to share your work at SFBS 2026? Good news: the abstract submission deadline has been extended! Apply before June 15, 2026 for a chance to give a talk or present a poster.

Super-resolution microscopy makes it possible to observe samples at the nanoscale, by precisely localizing individual molecules and tracking their movements within their environment. However, this level of precision makes acquisitions highly sensitive to even the smallest sample movements. A drift of only a few nanometers can lead to loss of focus, image blur, and misinterpretation of the actual position of the molecules being observed.

Several methods already exist to correct these drifts, but they are often limited to thin or transparent samples. Some rely on the reflection of infrared light at the interface between the sample and the coverslip, while others require the addition of fiducial markers. These approaches are more difficult to apply to thick, opaque, or highly scattering tissues, which cannot always be imaged using trans-illumination.

To address this challenge, the research teams led by Laurent Cognet at the LP2N (Bordeaux) and Laurent Groc at the IINS (Bordeaux) developed a stabilization method adapted to these types of samples¹. Their approach combines homogenized differential phase contrast imaging, or hDPC, with cross-correlation-based analysis to automatically correct sample drift in three dimensions.

One of the key strengths of this method is its use in oblique back-illumination. Unlike trans-illumination, this configuration illuminates the sample from the same side as detection, making it compatible with thick or opaque tissues. The label-free hDPC images provide enough structural detail to serve as stabilization references, without requiring the addition of fiducial markers.

The method was validated on several biological models. In fixed organotypic brain slices, it maintained the focal position with a precision of a few tens of nanometers. In live brain slices, it improved the quality of super-resolved maps of the extracellular space obtained through single-particle tracking. Finally, in liver slices, a particularly opaque and scattering tissue, active drift correction revealed more structural information than acquisitions performed without stabilization.

Figure 4. (a) Liver slices preparation. (b) hDPC image of a live liver slice tissue (scale bar = 20 μm). The liver slice ESC maps were obtained without (c) and with (d) active autofocusing (scale bars = 10 μm). The differences between the ECS maps are clearly visible, with several regions highlighted by circles. The area marked in yellow contains finer structural details in the ECS map reconstructed from the acquisition with active autofocusing. In contrast, the region indicated in green shows an area where the nanoparticles explored a different portion of the extracellular space. (e) Corresponding MSD curves. (f) Example of drift curves obtained in live liver slices, showing that the drift is nondirectional and exhibits strong variations over time.

By enabling stable imaging in thick, opaque, and living tissues, this approach opens new perspectives for high-resolution microscopy in complex biological environments. Compatible with back-illumination and requiring no additional labeling, it could be adapted to a wide range of microscopy configurations, both in biology and materials science.

(1) “Back-illumination Phase Imaging Enables Nanoscale Drift Stabilization in Non-transparent Biological Tissues” H. Manko, M. Tondusson, A. Boyreau, M. Meras, S. Bancelin, L. Groc, and L. Cognet*
ACS Photonics (2026) – https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.5c03066

* Laurent Cognet – Laboratoire Photonique Numérique et Nanosciences, Université de Bordeaux, Talence 33400, France
LP2N, Institut d’Optique Graduate School, CNRS UMR 5298, Talence 33400, France
Email: laurent.cognet@u-bordeaux.fr

The SFBS 2026 Scientific Symposium, hosted in Bordeaux from October 19 to 21, 2026, will be dedicated to super-resolution and advanced microscopy. On this occasion, renowned international experts will share their latest research and exchange with attendees on their vision of the field.

After presented Francisco Balzarotti, Liangyi Chen and Lydia Danglot, we introduce three new speakers: Wulan Deng, Makus Sauer, Baohui Chen.

Wulan Deng

Her research group applies advanced light microscopy and single-molecule imaging to visualize dynamic transcriptional and chromatin organization events in living cells, with the goal of uncovering gene expression mechanisms underlying stem cell pluripotency, differentiation, and disease.

Among her landmark contributions, she was the first to precisely manipulate the spatial organization of chromatin at an endogenous locus to directly control gene transcription; she developed CASFISH, a novel CRISPR-based method for fluorescent in situ genomic DNA labeling; she revealed unique single-molecule target search mechanisms of pioneer transcription factors; and she developed single-molecule localization and diffusivity microscopy (SMLDM), capable of generating high-density single-molecule diffusivity maps in living cells. SMLDM enables simultaneous mapping of molecular mobility and spatial localization at the single-molecule level, providing a powerful new tool for dissecting the functional states of transcription factors and chromatin-associated proteins within the native nuclear environment.

Her findings have been published in Cell, Science, PNAS, Blood, NSMB, and Nature Methods.

Markus Sauer

His independent laboratory’s work started in 1998 at the University of Heidelberg after he received the BioFuture Award of the German Government to establish a group for single-molecule handling, detection, and characterization. In these early days of single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy they demonstrated the unequivocal identification of up to four different fluorophores at the single-molecule level by time-resolved fluorescence detection. He moved to the University of Bielefeld in 2003 as full professor for Laser Physics and Laser Spectroscopy where he developed the basis for reliable photoswitching of fluorophores in thiol-buffers, which laid the foundation for the development of single-molecule localization microscopy by direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM).

Since he moved to the University of Würzburg in 2009, he further optimized and applied various super-resolution microscopy methods to investigate the molecular architecture of synapses, centrioles, mitochondria, nuclear pore complexes and synaptonemal complexes. He leads a multidisciplinary team with background in biology, chemistry, physics, computer science and neuroscience. His team generates experimental data and deciphers the resulting data using statistical and machine learning tools. He collaborates with several labs around the world to bring new technologies and analysis tools to bear upon the study of complex tissues, in health and disease.

In close cooperation with the University Hospital Würzburg, they developed methods to characterize tumor cells and T cells with single-molecule sensitivity to improve the efficacy and safety of immunotherapies. In addition, they develop tools to decode the interplay of therapeutic antibodies with tumor cells to induce killing by the complement system and immune cells. Nowadays, they focus their research on improving the spatial resolution of super-resolution microscopy methods to enable true molecular resolution fluorescence imaging in cells. This work includes the investigation of fluorophore interactions in the sub-10 nm range as well as methods to bypass these limitations by using TDI-DNA-PAINT and Photoswitching Fingerprint Analysis.

Finally, they are currently developing methods that combine Expansion Microscopy and super-resolution microscopy to achieve a structural resolution of 1-5 nm in cells and tissue.

Baohui Chen

Her research focuses on developing technologies for live-cell tracking and manipulation of nucleic acids, and leveraging these methodologies to explore the dynamic changes and functional regulation of nuclear substructures.

Her key achievements include: establishing CRISPR-Cas systems for live-cell chromatin imaging; developing gene visualization tools such as TriTag, LiveArt, and MONITTR to explore RNA Polymerase I/II regulation; and creating gene manipulation methods including Narta and Ribo-On/Off.

Don’t miss this opportunity to meet these experts during SFBS 2026! Join us in Bordeaux from October 19 to 21, 2026!

Interested in sharing your work as well? Submit your abstract before June 1, 2026 for a chance to give a talk or present a poster.