SFBS 2026 last invited speakers are unveiled! Discover their portrait and their research topics in the post below. Are you interested to meet them and exchange on super-resolution microscopy? There is a few places left for SFBS 2026. You can still register for the event!

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Zhixing Chen

Dr. Zhixing Chen is an associate professor with tenure at College of Future Technology, Peking University.

He received BS from Tsinghua University (2008) and PhD from Columbia University (2014). He has additional training at Stanford University (Postdoc 2016-2018) and Columbia University (Postdoc 2015).

The Chen lab at Peking University was established in 2018, who endeavors to integrate chemistry and biochemistry to create new imaging tools with high brightness, specificity, and biocompatibility to promote advanced bioimaging technologies, aiming to enable new approaches in cell biology, metabolism, and biophysics.

Their representative achievements include: The PK Mito and PK Zinc dye series, widely used in mitochondrial and insulin secretion imaging. The BD series of novel fluorophores, in conjunction with self-labeling tags, offer general protein labeling strategies with superior optical properties compared to fluorescent proteins.

Alara Kiris

Alara Kiriş is a second-year PhD student in the Laboratory of Experimental Biophysics at EPFL, under the supervision of Prof. Suliana Manley.

Her research focuses on developing smart microscopy tools to study mitochondrial dynamics and connectivity.

Prior to her PhD, she worked at ETH Zurich’s ScopeM, where she developed experimental workflows for DNA-PAINT, and RESI imaging nuclear pore complexes. She holds an MSc in Physics from the University of Trento, where she studied magnetoreception in Drosophila melanogaster using in vivo two-photon brain imaging, and a BSc in Engineering Physics from Istanbul Technical University.

Yiming Li

Yiming Li received his B. Eng. in Biomedical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong university in 2009, his master in Medical Physics at Heidelberg University in 2010, and his PhD in Biophysics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2015. He was then an EMBL- EIPOD postdoctoral fellow at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, Heidelberg) and a visiting scholar at Yale University (2016-2019).

Afterwards, Yiming started his own lab at Southern University of Science and Technology. Yiming has a long-standing research focus on 3D super-resolution microscopy. The software he developed earned first place in the SMLM challenge, the most prestigious software contest in the field.

Yiming’s research interests include new optics theories, advanced algorithms, smart hardware design and imaging strategies for better resolution, greater depth, and higher throughput to show the wonders of the microscopic world.

Eva-Maria Schentarra

Eva-Maria Schentarra is a Ph.D. student in the group of Ralf Jungmann at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry and Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) in Munich.

She studied Molecular Biotechnology at Heidelberg University and developed a strong interest in advanced microscopy and single-molecule biophysics.

During research stays at EMBL Heidelberg with Jonas Ries and at Aix-Marseille University with Christophe Leterrier, she worked on motor protein dynamics using MINFLUX tracking and on the nanoscale organization of the neuronal cytoskeleton using SMLM. She later completed her master’s thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Stefan Hell, where she applied MINFLUX to study motor-protein stepping behavior in cells.

Since starting her Ph.D. in 2023, she has focused on developing highly multiplexed DNA-PAINT imaging strategies to investigate the nanoscale organization of synaptic proteins. Her current work bridges methodological development and biological applications, advancing multiplexed imaging while addressing questions in cell and neurobiology.

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

Register now!

The ISIDORe II project, funded by the European union, invites applications for free-of-charge Transnational Access (TNA) to research infrastructure services supporting Andes virus (ANDV) and ANDV-relevant hantavirus research.

This call is open to researchers from:

  • academia
  • public research organisations
  • public-health-linked research bodies
  • industry & SMEs
  • all relevant research-performing organisations

Priority research areas

  • Therapeutic and non-vaccine prophylactic candidate evaluation
    • This area covers proposals seeking service-based evaluation, comparison or characterisation of existing therapeutic or non-vaccine prophylactic candidates against ANDV or ANDV‑relevant hantaviruses.
  • Diagnostic tools, assays, reagents and reference materials for ANDV-relevant research
    • This area covers proposals seeking service-based development, adaptation, analytical evaluation, benchmarking or characterisation of diagnostic tools, assays, reagents, reference materials or related research tools for ANDV or ANDV-relevant hantaviruses.
  • ANDV-relevant models, experimental systems and readouts
    • This area covers proposals seeking service-based use, comparison or characterisation of models, experimental approaches or readouts for ANDV or ANDV-relevant hantavirus research.

Access to cutting-edge imaging technologies

Euro-BioImaging is involved in ISIDORe ii, by providing advanced imaging tools that support ISIDORe ii user projects. Here’s an overview of the Euro-BioImaging services:

  • Optical and intravital in vivo imaging
  • PET/CT MRI
  • Fluorescence microscopy (incl. live cell imaging, high-content screening, mesoscopic imaging, and other specialised approaches)
  • Mass Spectrometry based Imaging
  • Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (Nanoscopy)
  • Cryo-Electron Microscopy
  • Volume Electron Microscopy (RT and cryo)
  • Image analysis

Practical informations

How to apply

  • Please make sure that you have read (and comply with) the call criteria and eligibility conditions.
  • Prepare your ORCID number. If you do not have one yet, please go to orcid.org to obtain your own in a few clicks.
  • Select the service you want to apply for from our catalogue.
  • Follow the prompts to login or create a new profile in the ISIDORe Access Management System (AMS)
  • You will be asked to fill in and submit your pre-application form briefly describing your research proposal.
  • After your pre-application is submitted, you will receive an ISIDORe ID number (ISID_xxxx). Please ensure that you include this ID number in all future enquiries regarding your application and service provision.
  • You will receive follow up instructions from the relevant ISIDORe partner for how to submit your full application.
  • Depending on the service request details, you may be asked to provide further information regarding ethical and security aspects.
  • Your application will be first evaluated for compliance with eligibility criteria, then reviewed for feasibility and peer reviewed by an independent panel of external evaluators. You will be notified of the outcome.
  • Successful applicants will be contacted by ISIDORe and will then agree on the next steps and timeline for implementation in the laboratory identified as the most appropriate for your service request. Users of ISIDORe services will be required to agree to our terms and conditions of service before service provision begins.

For more information about the call criteria and eligibility conditions you can visite ISIDORe official website.

You have until December 11, 2026 to submit your application.

Image from Euro-BioImaging

The Consortium for Quality Assessment and Reproducibility for Instruments and Images in Light Microscopy (QUAREP-LiMi), formed by the global community of practitioners, researchers, developers, service providers, funders, publishers, policy makers and industry related to the use of light microscopy, is committed to democratising access to quantitative and reproducible light microscopy and the data generated by it.

The community is organizing its next annual meeting online on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, from 3:00 to 6:00 PM CEST. It will be the opportunity to discover the work of all the working groups of the community, their results and their future plans.

Look at below for the preliminary programme.

The meeting is open to everyone, whether you are a member of the community or not!

Connection link: https://uni-freiburg.zoom-x.de/j/66233584197?pwd=uxcagwa4GWBfK7BgbiTV24Ua2IFXx9.1

QUAREP-LiMi AM 2026 AgendaDownload

We are pleased to announce a new edition of FBI Connect, our webinar series dedicated to imaging-related developments and innovative approaches within the France-BioImaging community.

This session will focus on a new generation of fluorescent probes, with Ludovic Jullien, researcher at the ENS-PSL Chemistry Department.

The webinar will take place on Thursday, November 5, 2026, from 11:00 to 12:00.

Interested in joining us? Register now and save your place!

Register here

Controlling fluorescence with light

Ludovic Jullien will present his recent work on light-responsive fluorescent tags based on the FAST system.

FAST is a non-covalent fluorogenic labeling system in which a fluorogen becomes fluorescent when bound to a protein tag. By exploiting the photochemical properties of these fluorogens, Ludovic Jullien and his collaborators showed that FAST tags can acquire new light-responsive behaviors, including reversible photoswitching and, when two fluorogens are combined, photoconversion.

These dynamic properties open new possibilities for super-resolution microscopy, dynamic contrast imaging and multiplexed imaging, by providing additional information beyond fluorescence color alone.

Want to learn more about these new light-responsive tools for bioimaging? Join us on November 5 and register now!

Register here

On the occasion of the “Fête de la Science”, the Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences is organizing a neuroscience photo exhibition from October 2 to 11, 2026.

This event offers the public the opportunity to explore the inside of the brain through images of cells, tissues and brain structures, revealing a universe invisible to the naked eye.

Four new invited speakers have been announced for SFBS 2026, further enriching the scientific programme dedicated to super-resolution microscopy for biological imaging.

Here’s few places left, you can still register for the event!

Join us here

Rainer Heintzmann

Rainer Heintzmann, studied physics and computer science in Osnabrück and finished his Dr. rer. nat. in Physics at Heidelberg University, Germany. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute of biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and as a group leader at the Randall Division, King’s College London he continued to work on developing fluorescence microscopy methods.

Currently he is a professor of Physical Chemistry at the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, and heads the microscopy research unit at the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology in Jena, Germany.

His research focuses on methods for imaging cellular function at high resolution and developing techniques to measure multidimensional information in small biological objects such as cells, cellular organelles or other small structures of interest.

He developed structured illumination, pointillism, image inversion interferometry and optical photon reassignment and is highly interested in computer-based reconstruction and inverse modelling methods such as deconvolution.

Bei Liu

Dr. Bei Liu joined the College of Future Technology at Peking University as an Assistant Professor in 2022. Prior to this appointment, he conducted his postdoctoral research with Professor Klaus M. Hahn at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2015, and was promoted to Research Assistant Professor in 2019.

His laboratory develops novel molecular tools and microscopy techniques to visualize and control cell behavior across scales, with a particular focus on biosensors and optogenetics.

The lab takes a multidisciplinary approach, integrating high-throughput, advanced imaging with AI-driven protein design, image analysis, and laboratory automation.

His work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Cell, Nature Chemical Biology, and Nature Communications.

Flavie Lavoie-Cardinal

Flavie Lavoie-Cardinal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Université Laval and Deputy Director of the Cellular and Molecular Research Axis at the CERVO Brain Research Centre in Québec City, Canada.

She is Scientific Director of the AI-for-Health Platform PREDIS, and of the Canadian Optical Nanoscopy Platform.

She holds the Canada Research Chair in Intelligent Nanoscopy of Cellular Plasticity and leads interdisciplinary research at the intersection of optical microscopy, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence.

Her laboratory develops AI-assisted super-resolution microscopy and computational approaches to uncover how nanoscale synaptic organization and heterogeneity shape neuronal function and plasticity across biological scales.

Fan Xu

Fan Xu is a Professor in the School of Optics and Photonics at Beijing Institute of Technology (Lab website: www.xulab.cc). Fan received the PhD degree in computer science from Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017 and then worked as a postdoctoral fellow and senior research associate in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University

His research focuses on the development and application of super-resolution microscopy techniques, especially in 3D super-resolution imaging and single molecule localization analysis.

He combines novel imaging instruments and physical model or data-driven approaches to investigate cellular/tissue structures and dynamics that are below the diffraction limit of light and therefore inaccessible to conventional microscopy.

His publications include Nature Methods, Cell Research, Nature Communications, Protein & cell, and Biomedical Optics Express.

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

Register now!

From September 15 to 18, France-BioImaging joined the Euro-BioImaging All Hands Nodes Meeting 2026 in Turku, Finland, under the theme “Connecting the Communities”.

This meeting brought together imaging infrastructures, Nodes, researchers, technology experts and industry partners from across Europe to exchange experiences, showcase emerging technologies and discuss how to strengthen collaboration within the Euro-BioImaging community.

Several topics particularly resonated with the France-BioImaging community:

  • Multimodal & multiscale imaging
    From advanced microscopy and nanoscopy to X-ray imaging and other complementary approaches, the meeting highlighted the power of combining technologies to explore biological systems across scales.
  • AI & bioimage analysis
    AI is rapidly transforming imaging workflows. Discussions and presentations showcased new approaches for AI-assisted image analysis, scalable computational infrastructures and the development of more efficient and accessible imaging workflows.
  • Connecting infrastructures & communities
    A recurring message throughout the meeting: infrastructure is not only about technology. Training, expertise, coordination and collaboration are essential to make advanced imaging accessible and useful to a broad research community.
  • From research to innovation
    The meeting also explored opportunities to strengthen links between academic research, research infrastructures and industry – from collaborative projects and technology development to pathways towards innovation and industrial applications.
  • Building the future of bioimaging together
    The All Hands Meeting was a great opportunity for France-BioImaging to connect with European partners, exchange experiences and follow the exciting developments shaping the future of imaging research.

A big thank you to Euro-BioImaging ERIC and the Finnish hosts for bringing the community together in Turku! 

Looking forward to the next opportunities to connect, collaborate and advance bioimaging across Europe! 

PhysChemCell conference is back for another edition from November 16 to 18, 2026 in Université Paris-Saclay. During this event, participants will explore novel approaches at the crossroads of chemistry, physics and biology to study living systems, from single cells to entire organisms.

PhysChemCell is open to researchers, students and more widely scientists working at the interface of physics, chemistry and biology.

If you are interested, the registration is open until October 31, 2026. Participants can also apply to present an oral presentation or a poster, until October 1, 2026.

Scientific topics include

  • New chemical probes, labelling and activation strategies compatible with living systems
  • Biosensors and nanosensors: from design to imaging applications
  • Label-free chemical analysis and imaging
  • Multiscale observation of biological samples, from the nano/molecular scale to in vivo and real-time imaging

Plenary speakers

  • Stéphanie Descroix – Institut Curie, Paris
  • María García-Parajo – ICFO, Barcelona
  • YongKeun (Paul) Park – KAIST, Daejeon
  • Oliver Thorn-Seshold – Dresden University of Technology
Register here

A new study(1) published in Nature Communications shows that membrane enrichment with two polyunsaturated fatty acids, DHA and DPA, reduces agonist-induced endocytosis of the dopamine D2 receptor, a major target of antipsychotic drugs. By combining confocal microscopy and live-cell TIRF imaging, the researchers showed that D2R clustering at the plasma membrane is preserved, while β-arrestin2 recruitment to D2R endocytic sites and the formation of D2R-containing endocytic vesicles are reduced.

Linking membrane lipids and dopamine receptor trafficking

The brain is highly enriched in polyunsaturated fatty acids, or PUFAs, and altered PUFA levels have been associated with several neuropsychiatric disorders. Previous work had linked dietary PUFA deficiency in mice to behavioural changes, including altered motivation, involving neurons expressing the dopamine D2 receptor (D2R). In this new study, Silvia Sposini et al. investigated whether PUFA levels in cellular membranes could directly affect the trafficking of the D2R, a G protein-coupled receptor involved in dopaminergic signalling and a major target of antipsychotic drugs.

By enriching cell membranes with two different PUFAs, DHA and DPA, the team showed that agonist-induced D2R endocytosis was strongly reduced. This effect was observed in HEK-293 cells and confirmed in cultured cortical neurons. Importantly, PUFA enrichment did not affect clathrin-mediated endocytosis in general, assessed using transferrin uptake, nor the internalization of several other GPCRs tested. These results highlight a specific sensitivity of D2R endocytosis to membrane PUFA levels.

Imaging the altered steps of D2R endocytosis

Microscopy played a key role in understanding this mechanism. Confocal imaging showed that fewer D2R-containing endosomes formed in PUFA-enriched cells after receptor activation. Live-cell TIRF microscopy then allowed the researchers to observe early endocytic events at the plasma membrane. While D2R clustering at endocytic sites remained unchanged, the recruitment of β-arrestin2, an essential protein for D2R endocytosis and signalling, was reduced. Using the pulsed-pH assay, the team further showed a lower frequency of D2R-containing endocytic vesicle formation.

Finally, the study identified two key residues in the second intracellular loop of D2R, serines 147 and 148, as essential for the sensitivity of D2R endocytosis to PUFA levels. When these residues were mutated, the receptor still internalized after activation, but PUFA enrichment no longer reduced its endocytosis.

Together, these results show that membrane lipids do not only influence general membrane properties such as fluidity or rigidity. They can also specifically regulate the trafficking of membrane proteins such as the dopamine D2 receptor. This study opens new perspectives on how membrane composition may influence D2R trafficking, with potential consequences for dopaminergic signalling in the brain.

(1) Sposini, S., Baccouch, R., Lescuyer, M. et al. Membrane lipid poly-unsaturation selectively affects dopamine D2 receptor endocytosis. Nat Commun 17, 6661 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73057-5 

The Advanced Microscopies team at the Laboratory for Optics and Biosciences has shown that third harmonic generation (THG) microscopy, mainly used to visualize tissue structure, can also help distinguish certain biological pigments. By exploiting their response to different wavelengths, the researchers open new possibilities for label-free multiphoton imaging that can provide complementary information about sample composition.

Multiphoton microscopy is widely used to explore biological tissues in three dimensions. While many approaches rely on fluorescent labels to precisely identify specific structures or molecules, label-free techniques can also make use of the intrinsic properties of biological samples.

Among them, third harmonic generation (THG) microscopy can reveal interfaces and variations in optical properties within tissues. It is therefore particularly useful for providing information about tissue organization and morphology without requiring staining or fluorescent labeling. Until now, however, THG has mainly been used for structural imaging.

In this study1, Stella Dees et al. investigated another property of THG: its signal can be strongly enhanced in the presence of certain absorbing molecules when they are illuminated at specific wavelengths.

The researchers studied three representative biological pigments: hemoglobin in red blood cells, pteridines found in xanthophores (pigment cells in zebrafish) and melanin in human hair. For each of them, they measured how the THG signal changed depending on the excitation wavelength.

They observed signal enhancements ranging from 10- to 100-fold in these pigmented structures. Importantly, this enhancement did not occur in the same way for all pigments. Each showed a different response to the excitation wavelengths, providing information that can be used to distinguish them.

Distinguishing structures in a living sample

The team then applied this principle to the imaging of live zebrafish larvae. The researchers used an approach called third-order sum-frequency generation (TSFG), which provides simultaneous access to several spectral responses.

By taking advantage of the differences between the pigments, they were able to distinguish red blood cells containing hemoglobin from xanthophores and from surrounding structures.

This simultaneous readout is also particularly useful for imaging living and dynamic samples, as it provides spectroscopic contrast without requiring the excitation wavelength to be changed successively to acquire multiple images.

Color TSFG microscopy. (b) Tiled large-area TSFG image of a zebrafish larva (reanalysis of data used in Ref. 21). (c) Three-color image extracted from the same data, combining the following signals. RBC: red blood cells; xantho: xanthophores; noto: notochord interface.
FIG. S3. Color TSFG image of xanthophores and red blood cells in a zebrafish larva. Zoomed-in view of Fig. 5C showing the three individual channels (TSFG1, TSFG2, THG) in greyscale lookup table and the overlay in RGB.

Going beyond morphological information

These results show that THG could provide more than structural information alone. By exploiting the spectral properties of pigments naturally present in biological samples, THG and TSFG could add a degree of specificity to label-free multiphoton imaging.

This approach is not intended to replace fluorescence imaging, which remains particularly powerful for specifically targeting molecules or biological structures, but could provide complementary information without requiring additional labels.

The work therefore opens new perspectives for studying pigments and other naturally absorbing structures in biological samples, while also highlighting the need for further characterization of their spectral properties and for a better understanding of how light propagation through tissues influences the measured signals.

1Stella Dees, Júlia Ferrer Ortas, Pierre Mahou, Willy Supatto, Nicolas Olivier, Emmanuel Beaurepaire; Resonant third harmonic generation in biological pigments. APL Photonics 1 August 2026; 11 (8): 086116. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0341777

We are happy to announce that the new edition of our machine learning competition, Light My Cells 2, is now open! This Challenge completes the previous Light My Cells in 2024 with additional data and a new prediction task.

Light My Cells 2 is organized in two phases, the validation phase (September 21st – November 30th) and the evaluation phase (December 1st – December 13th).

Find more information below.

Join the Challenge

The Challenge: a data machine learning competition

Since 2024, France-BioImaging organizes its data machine learning competition in the aim to respond to the microscopy community issues.

With Light My Cells 1, participants predicted fluorescence images of four cellular structures – nucleus, mitochondria, tubulin, and actin – from label-free transmitted-light microscopy images acquired using bright-field (BF), phase-contrast (PC), or differential interference contrast (DIC) modalities. This technique is also known as in-silico labelling.

This Challenge established a large-scale, multi-site benchmark for evaluating in-silico fluorescence prediction from transmitted-light unlabeled microscopy images under realistic imaging variability.

Light My Cells 2 introduces additional training data and a new prediction task to reconstruct the fluorescence maximum-intensity projection (MIP) from transmitted-light image stacks.

Light My Cells 2 tasks

To help the participants build their algorithm, they have access to a training dataset of 76 studies, which represents more than 150 000 images. From these acquisition-sets, participants will have to create an algorithm to:

  • Predict the best-focused output-images of four fluorescently labelled organelles from label-free 2D transmitted light input-images.
  • Predict the MIP output-images of four fluorescently labelled organelles from a stack of 2D input-images of label-free transmitted light.

Key informations

The Challenge is now open and you can register to access the training dataset and start building your algorithm!

From September 21st, 2026, the validation phase begins – you will be able to test your algorithm and the submission process, up to five test submissions.

From December 1st to 13th, 2026, the evaluation phase will start – participants will have one final submission.

The results will be announced on December 18th, 2026.

Ready to take part in the Challenge? Discover Light My Cells 2 here: https://lightmycells2.grand-challenge.org/lightmycells2/

Four new invited speakers have been announced for SFBS 2026, further enriching the scientific programme dedicated to super-resolution microscopy for biological imaging.

Here’s few places left, you can still register for the event!

Join us here

Laurent Cognet

Laurent Cognet is a Research Director at the CNRS and Group Leader at the LP2N (Laboratory of Photonics, Numerical and Nanosciences), part of the Institute of Optics at the University of Bordeaux, France, where he also serves as Director of the research center. He earned his PhD in 1999 in quantum physics from Université Paris-Saclay under the supervision of Alain Aspect.

He then transitioned to nano- and biophotonics as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at Leiden University (Netherlands) in the group of Thomas Schmidt. In 2006–2007, he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Rice University.

Over the past 25+ years, Laurent Cognet has contributed to advances in single-molecule localization microscopy and carbon nanotube spectroscopy, applying these techniques to key questions in nanosciences and neuroscience. His current work focuses on developing innovative microscopy methods to study molecular diffusion in complex biological environments.

He has authored over 125 peer-reviewed publications and received multiple awards for his contributions.

Pingyong Xu

Dr. Pingyong Xu, a tenured professor at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and faculty member at the College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, earned his Ph.D. from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2004.

His research focuses on integrating spectroscopy, biophysical microscopy techniques, and protein design to develop innovative optical imaging tools, particularly photo-controllable fluorescent proteins (FPs).

Notably, Dr. Xu pioneered the development of the groundbreaking FP mEosEM for correlative light and transmission electron microscopy. He has also designed a range of high-performance FPs tailored for super-resolution imaging technologies such as PALM/STORM, SOFI, RESOLFT, and NL-SIM, significantly enhancing their temporal and spatial resolutions. Among these, mEos3.2 and Skylan-S stand out as premier FPs for PALM and SOFI imaging, respectively.

His most recent achievement is the development of mScarlet3-S2 for 3D STED microscope, and 3Snet CLID, a groundbreaking method capable of reconstructing SR images using just 1 frame of wide-field/spinning disk confocal raw images.

Anna Brachet

Anna Brachet is a CNRS researcher at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience in Bordeaux, France. She was trained as a cell biologist in Marseille, where she studied the organization and dynamics of sodium channels at the axon initial segment.

During her postdoctoral work in Madrid, Spain, she investigated molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, including AMPA receptor trafficking.

Her current work focuses on the neuronal membrane periodic skeleton and its role in maintaining cellular architecture while supporting plasticity. Combining advanced fluorescence microscopy, molecular perturbations, and functional assays, her research aims to understand how membrane-associated cytoskeletal structures organize and regulate the function of neurons and astrocytes.

Yongdeng Zhang

Dr. Yongdeng Zhang received his B.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Central South University in 2008 and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Huazhong University of Science & Technology in 2013, through a joint program with the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He then pursued postdoctoral research at Yale University School of Medicine from 2014 to 2020. In October 2020, he joined the School of Life Sciences at Westlake University as a Principal Investigator.

Dr. Zhang’s laboratory operates at the interface of technology and biology, advancing subcellular imaging through two complementary innovations. To map protein complexes with molecular precision, they developed 4Pi single-molecule localization microscopy (4Pi-SIMFLUX and me4Pi-SMLM), achieving isotropic 3D localization precision of 2–3 nm to resolve ultrastructural features below 10 nm in whole cells. To capture rapid subcellular events and inter-organelle interactions, they developed 4Pi structured illumination microscopy (4Pi-SIM) for two-color, time-lapse volumetric imaging, delivering ~100 nm isotropic 3D resolution at 1 Hz in living cells.

Together, these technologies constitute a scalable toolbox that bridges static molecular architecture and live cellular dynamics, enabling quantitative studies that were previously inaccessible to fluorescence microscopy.

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

Register now!