Announcement Archives - Page 2 of 16

Following the final decision of France-BioImaging Institutional Committee on February 27^th, 2024, we are delighted to announce that two new nodes are joining France-BioImaging: the Normandie Node and the Rhône-Alpes Node.

The new Normandie Node is composed of one imaging facilities: PRIMACEN. The node has also six highly visible R&D teams (from COBRA, IRIB, Cyceron, GlycoMEV and SCALE) expert in microscopy techniques and tools.

Mainly located in Rouen and distributed to Caen and Le Havre, the Normandie node is offering high level technical and innovative methodological expertise in multi-scale imaging at the interface between biology, chemistry, optics and physics, from the atom to the small animal/plant.

The Normandie Node has expertise in vascular sciences, microalgal biosciences and intercellular communication. Moreover, they are in a strong collaboration with the International master program in cell imaging where students are intensively trained on PRIMACEN equipment and have the opportunity to go abroad thanks to a cooperation with Finland.

The node provides cutting-edge technologies and methodologies, with among others:

STED, FLIM and combination of STED-FLIM for fixed and living cells to study in particular cell-to-cell connections such as Tunneling NanoTubes (TNTs) in PC12, HBEC, H28, MCF-7 cells.
Complementary heart advanced light imaging including confocal micro- and macroscopy, light-sheet microscopy and image analysis to study microvascular and lymphatic dysfunction.
New multimodal probes to study vascular brain diseases: reporter fusion proteins to track tPA, biodegradable and ultrasensitive microprobes, contrast agent that is targeted to adhesion molecules such as p-selectin, V-CAM1 (Vascular cell adhesion protein 1) and mucosal vascular addressin cell adhesion molecule 1 (MAdCAM-1).
Advanced light microscopy and TEM imaging to study microalgae as a cell factory including morphotypes characterization, subcellular localization of molecular actors involved in the N-glycosylation pathway (GDP-Fucose transporter, Fucosyltransferase and GnT I located in the Golgi apparatus).
New organic fluorophores and new chemobiology tools: 3-Benzoylquinoxalinone, Fluorophore-assisted click chemistry through copper(I) complexation, Epicocconone-hemicyanine hybrids and Indazole merocyanines.

The new Rhône-Alpes node is composed of two core facilities: LyMIC in Lyon and ISDV in Grenoble. Gathered into one entity, LyMIC consists of three core facilities providing advanced photonic, atomic force and advanced electron microscopies. ISDV comprises five photonic microscopy facilities and three electron microscopy experts. Moreover, six R&D teams complete the node and supports the facility (from ILM, LiPHY, IAB, ENS-Lyon and GIN).

The Rhône-Alpes node aims to maintain the level of scientific excellence in response to the needs of users and the concerns of host laboratories. Four scientific axes are conducted: imaging, quantifying and controlling cell metabolism; biomechanics from molecules to tissues; spatial transcriptomic; and 3D multiscale imaging.

The node provides cutting-edge technologies and methodologies, with among others:

The project Confobright (Adaptive Optics for Quantitative Confocal Microscopy-AOQCM) has been designed to correct for optical aberrations, making deeper, better resolved and more sensitive confocal and multiphoton imaging in optically heterogeneous tissues.
The project Quantifret is a new calibration and analysis method allowing for quantitative FRET imaging in living cells with a simple fluorescence microscope, giving absolute FRET values, independent of the instrument or the expression level, and usable confidently by non-specialists.
Eternity buffer, launched as Everspark by Idylle in 2021 is distributed worldwide (20 countries) to more than 100 researchers (80% abroad including 20% in the States). It represents a major breakthrough in the field due to its long lasting life (several weeks against 2 hours for classical GLOX).
FluoRef calibration beads, renamed SpheroRuler by Idylle, is under ß-testing program until the end of January. These 1 µm beads are coated with a fluorophore emitting in the far red channel suitable to blink in dSTORM buffer for calibration imaging on 2D and 3D super-resolution microscopes.
An integrated service of methods to measure forces and elastic properties in plants and insect models (through coupling of AFM and confocal imaging).
The pipe-line for analysis of deep 3D EM data (FIB-SEM +/- Cryofixation) with the easily accessible integration of multiple aspects of segmentation, training of dedicated IA network and export of characteristic quantitative parameters.

Welcome to the FBI Normandie Node and the FBI Rhône-Alpes Node!

We would like to introduce to you one of our France-BioImaging external users: Sonhita Chakraborty! Post doctoral researcher at the Umeå Plant Science Center, in Sweden, she is interested in studying how plant can adapt to temperature stresses in a context of climate change.

As she needed high-end imaging technology and expertise to move her research to the next step, Sonhita has asked for access to one of France-BioImaging core facilities, the Bordeaux Imaging Center.

Meet her in this short video and see how it was a great experience both scientifically and humanly!

You can now apply for a new call to get free open access to instruments and services at one of our nodes’ core facility!

We are happy to announce the 2nd Open Call from the Horizon Europe-funded CanSERV project! Cancer Researchers are invited to apply for FREE state-of-the-art services and training at several European Research Infrastructures, including Euro-BioImaging ERIC. Within this project, 28 Euro-Bioimaging Nodes (- Yes, France-BioImaging is part of it too! -) offer access to their expertise. It’s an amazing opportunity for the cancer research community to access a wide-ranging portfolio of services.

All user projects – ranging from basic discovery science to translational science and into personalised oncology on any type of cancer – are eligible. The total indicative funding volume of this call is 1 Million Euro across the entire canSERV consortium.

The full call text, including user guidelines and other useful information, and the canSERV catalog of services are linked here and can be accessed via canserv.eu and via eurobioimaging.eu/content/canserv.

Submission deadline is May 21st, 2024, 14:00 CEST.

Phase 1 submissions for the Light My Cells challenge are now open to participants! This is a preliminary test phase to prepare for the final phase and familiarize participants with the algorithm submission procedure, with the possibility of making five submissions up to March 30.

Would you like to take part? Registration is open until March 30!

What is the challenge?

The Light My Cells France-Bioimaging challenge aims to contribute to the development of new image-to-image ‘deep-label’ methods in the fields of biology and microscopy. Basically, the goal is to predict the best-focused output-images of several fluorescently labelled organelles from label-free transmitted light input-images. And we need you for that!

More information about the challenge: lightmycells.grand-challenge.org/lightmycells

How to participate

We have defined the challenge as a single task with two phases:

A preliminary test phase (on 30 images) to familiarize with the algorithm submission procedure, with the possibility to have five submissions (with a maximum of one by week)
The final test phase (on 300 images) with only one submission accessible will not give the possibility to evaluate their algorithms before submitting.

So, you have until the end of the first phase, on March 21, 2024, to register and participate at this Light My Cells challenge.

Register now! lightmycells.grand-challenge.org/lightmycells

Prizes

For top 3 winners:

Award certificate
A challenge paper will be written with the organizing team’s members for submission to journals
Invitation to publish their methods in the proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging 2024s
Support and integration of open source code into open science image processing and analysis software (e.g. BioImage Model Zoo, Napari)

For the 1st:

Invitation to 2024 France-Bioimaging annual meeting
Graphic card
Android tablet

For the 2nd:

Graphic card
Android tablet

For the 3rd:

Android tablet

Why launching a challenge?

To develop powerful methods that will then end up in creating public databases, standards & benchmarks in the field of bioimaging! The FBI challenge is hinged on a double contribution: from core facilities engineers and from data scientists. The first group acquired a large number of images to build a dataset, that will later be used by the algorithms. These images were produced by microscopy engineers & technicians from FBI’s platforms. As for the second contribution, this is where the challenge starts! The challenge is then published to have a maximum of data scientists to work on the algorithms that best fulfill the analysis task.

The first project is also based on four pillars:

Open source + FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable)
Supervised learning, it involves annotated datasets to maintain control over performances.
In silico annotations, a computer labeling method to avoid manual annotation and its drawbacks.
Image-to-image analysis tasks, an image analysis tasks which aim to predict an output image from the input one.

For any questions, please contact Dorian Kauffmann: dorian.kauffmann@france-bioimaging.org.

HIV type 1 virus has a lipid envelope enriched with host cell sphingomyelin and cholesterol. In order to understand the mechanism of this enrichment, the FBI Alsace node (Laboratoire de Bioimagerie et Pathologies from Université de Strasbourg and the Imaging Center PIQ-QuESt) has participated in a study recently published in Nature Communications about HIV-1 virus assembly. Indeed, they have investigated the interplay between the HIV-1 Gag protein and the host cell lipids at the plasma membrane. This work has greatly benefited from the use of a great combination of different quantitative (FLIM-FRET and FRAP) and super-resolution (PALM/STORM) custom-made microscopes with specific probes.

Using FRAP to characterize mobile and immobile molecules

The Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) quantifies the two-dimensional lateral diffusion of fluorescently labeled molecules of interest. This technique is very useful in biological studies of cell membrane diffusion and protein binding as it not only reports on the diffusion rates of mobile fractions of molecules but also provides information about the proportion of immobile molecules.

In our case, FRAP experiments indicated that the expression of Gag significantly decreased the mobile fraction of sphingomyelin (SM)-rich domains. Besides, the technique showed that cholesterol (Chol)-rich domains were intrinsically immobile, even in the absence of Gag. It is speculated that the association of Gag with SM-rich domains restricts the lateral diffusion of the lipid domains, resulting in an increase of the immobile fraction in FRAP measurements.

Using PALM/dSTORM to localize molecules at high resolution

The Photo-activated localization microscopy (PALM) is a widefield fluorescence microscopy imaging method that provides images with a resolution beyond the diffraction limit. By collecting a large number of images each containing just a few active isolated fluorophores, the collection of these images allows to stochastically activate each fluorophore and thus to obtain a global image of the sample with high resolution.

The Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) works on the activated state of a photo-switchable molecule that leads to the consecutive emission of sufficient photons to enable precise localization before it enters a dark state or becomes deactivated by photobleaching.

Coupling these two techniques, scientists next investigated at high resolution the localization of Gag and SM-rich or Chol-rich domains, both labeled with specific fluorescently labeled lipid binding proteins.

PALM/dSTORM visualized domains of different sizes labeled with the two lipid binding proteins, showing that the expression of Gag induced the formation of larger SM-rich domains but not the formation of larger Chol-rich domains. The main hypothesis is that the formation of large lipid domains may be due to the coalescence of smaller lipid domains.

Using FLIM-FRET to identify molecule proximity and interaction

And last but not least, the Fluorescence-lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is an imaging technique for producing an image based on differences in the fluorescence-lifetime rather than its intensity. By quantifying variations in the exponential decay rate of the fluorescence from a fluorescent sample (fluorescence-lifetime) it is possible to report on molecule proximity. Since the fluorescence-lifetime is insensitive to changes in fluorophore intensity or concentration, it is the most quantitatively precise technique to report on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET).

FRET is a mechanism describing energy transfer between two light-sensitive molecules (chromophores). A donor chromophore, initially in its electronic excited state, may transfer energy to an acceptor chromophore through non-radiative dipole-dipole coupling. FRET is extremely sensitive to small changes in distance and therefore an excellent reporter on molecule proximity and interaction.

In this third and final part, to better understand the possible effect of Gag on the lipid distribution in the plasma membrane, scientists investigated by two-photon FLIM-FRET the interaction of Chol-rich lipid domains with SM-rich lipid domains and its dependence on Gag multimerization. These last results showed that Gag multimerization induces SM-rich and Chol-rich domains to be in close proximity and that membrane curvature affects the apposition of SM-rich and Chol-rich domains.

A great example of application on how a combination of high-end technologies in microscopy can help you understand multiple aspects of a biological mechanism. So, what are you waiting for? Dive into the true potential of microscopy!

**Colocalization between Gag-mEos4b curvature mutants and AF647-NT-Lys and domain analysis in PALM/dSTORM** (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42994-w)

Get access to one of our services!

You need FRAP, two photon FLIM-FRET, PALM/dSTORM at France-BioImaging? To get open access, please login via Euro-BioImaging website! You just have to choose the technology you want to use, then submit your proposal. All applications will be processed by the Euro-BioImaging Hub in close relation with France-BioImaging. And of course, all scientists regardless of their affiliation, area of expertise or field of activity can benefit from open access services! Users whose projects will be validated by Euro-BioImaging will benefit from a waiver for the access cost on France-BioImaging core facilities (https://france-bioimaging.org/access/).

Tomishige, N., Bin Nasim, M., Murate, M. et al. HIV-1 Gag targeting to the plasma membrane reorganizes sphingomyelin-rich and cholesterol-rich lipid domains. Nat Commun 14, 7353 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42994-w

Technical information from www.eurobioimaging.eu

As the FBI Correlative Light-Electron Microscopy workshop is currently happening at the Bordeaux Imaging Center (FBI Bordeaux node), what a better occasion to highlight a correlative microscopy technique: The Array Tomography.

Correlative Light and Electron microscopy (CLEM) increases our capacity of biological investigation. By combining light microscopy and electron microscopy, this complementary approach takes advantages of both techniques. In fact, light imaging provides valuable functional information thanks to its labeling power, whereas Electron microscopy excels at high resolution.

Where array tomography (AT) is special is that this technique is based on serial ultramicrotomy (cutting many sections less than a micrometer in thickness) of the sample, section collection onto support, and serial scanning EM (SEM) imaging.

An array of microscopy modes

Array tomography is a versatile microscopy method that offers opportunities to explore cell and tissues in three dimensions. This technique is well suited to image large tissue volumes of your sample with fine structural and molecular details.

Different modes are available, each having its own specificity and benefits:

The fluorescence microscopy AT mode (FM-AT) delivers volumetric resolution and molecular marker multiplexing highly superior to traditional fluorescence microscopies.
The electron microscopy AT mode (EM-AT) captures three-dimensional ultrastructure at size scales that would require prohibitive effort using traditional serial-section EM methods.
And of course, you can combine both modes in a unique one FM/EM-AT with three-dimensional light and electron images acquired in perfect volumetric data.

Why you should consider this technique next time?

The use of FM-AT should be considered for volumetric fluorescence imaging of fixed tissue specimens whenever there is need for very high resolution, high-order molecular multiplexing and/or rigorously depth-independent quantification of fluorescence signal intensities. Use of EM-AT offers perhaps the most convenient approach to volumetric electron microscopy available. Moreover, even though fields of applications are numerous, these attributes establish AT as an ideal choice for the most demanding analyses of diverse cellular architectures within mature and developing tissues such as brain tissue (neuroscientists, this technique is for you!).

Finally, while originally developed for EM, physical cutting of ultrathin sections was found to improve the axial resolution and provide accessibility to the sample for molecular labeling, beneficial for both, EM and light microscopy. Need another argument? The same or adjacent sections can be imaged with different modalities in correlative or even conjugate microscopy!

Get access to one of our services!

You need Array Tomography or another imaging technology or expertise that France-BioImaging provides? To get open access, please login via Euro-BioImaging website! You just have to choose the technology you want to use, then submit your proposal. All applications will be processed by the Euro-BioImaging Hub in close relation with France-BioImaging. And of course, all scientists regardless of their affiliation, area of expertise or field of activity can benefit from open access services! Users whose projects will be validated by Euro-BioImaging will benefit from a waiver for the access cost on France-BioImaging core facilities (https://france-bioimaging.org/access/).

Technical information: https://www.arraytomography.org/

Smith SJ. Q&A: Array tomography. BMC Biol. 2018 Sep 6;16(1):98. doi: 10.1186/s12915-018-0560-1

The LCI core facility at Karolinska Institutet has the pleasure to invite you to follow the microscopy course called Microscopy: improve your imaging skills – from sample preparation to image analysis.

The course starts next Monday (29 Jan) and runs until the 16^th of February.

As usual, all the course lectures are broadcasted live on Zoom. It is free of charge and you do not need to register.

The aim for this course is to improve the microscopy skills of students and researchers who have already used a microscope to acquire digital images of fluorescent samples but feel that more knowledge could help them.

Here is a selection of what we will talk about:

Optics and image formation,
Anatomy of a microscope
Objectives and refraction index
Cameras and detectors, Noise and background, Bit depth and saturation
Sample preparation, Immunostaining, Clearing and expansion
Resolution and contrast, Nyquist sampling, Microscope settings
Data handling, OMERO.figure, Requirements for image analysis, Colocalization
Image processing and analysis

More information: https://ki.se/en/bionut/lci-microscopy-course

Most mammals can maintain a relatively constant and high body temperature. This is considered to be a key adaptation for theses species, enabling them to successfully colonize new habitats and survive harsher environments. Scientists from the Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier (ISEM) investigate the possible correlation between the maxilloturbinal in the anterior nasal cavity and the body temperature maintenance by using Micro Tomography (or MicroCT) at the MRI core facility (FBI Montpellier node). This technique was essential in this study as it rebuilt the hypothesis around body temperature maintenance. Here is what they found.

MicroCT: Image in a non-destructive way

First of all, what is Micro Tomography? Micro Tomography, or Micro-CT, is a 3D imaging technique using X-rays to see inside biological material, at a small animal or body part level. Slice by slice, this technology scans the object in a series of 2D images that are reconstructed in a 3D model. Micro CT is, thus, non-destructive. This means that it can be used to image a sample without having to cut it! Not only your material is still in one piece but you can use it for further experiments.

Phylogenetic studies as an example of application

In this study examining the correlation between skull structure and the stabilization of body temperature, MicroCT was the key. The presence and the relative size of the maxilloturbinal has been proposed as a hypothesis that reflects the endothermic conditions and basal metabolic rate in extinct vertebrates. Among bony structures, respiratory turbinals (e.g., maxilloturbinal) are interesting anatomical structures that may offer important insights to the origins of endothermy, in other words to the origin of warm-blooded animals. Indeed, respiratory turbinals are highly vascularized, which amplifies the surface area and offers an effective mechanism to avoid loss of internally-produced and costly heat.

You probably figured it out: scientists needed to compare the structure of the maxilloturbinal in order to take conclusion. This is when Micro Tomography was very useful. They scanned 424 individuals from 310 mammal species using high-resolution X-ray micro-computed tomography, with approximatively half of the samples imaged at MRI, part of our Montpellier node. Using the obtained comparative 3D µCT dataset, they explored the anatomical diversity of the maxilloturbinal based on relative surface area, morphology and complexity. They specifically tested the relationship between multiple parameters such as the size-corrected basal metabolic rate (cBMR), the relative surface area of the maxilloturbinal (Maxillo RSA) or body temperature.

And the results surprisingly showed that…

…there is no evidence to relate the origin of endothermy and the development of some turbinal bones! Even though scientists used a comprehensive dataset of Micro CT-derived maxilloturbinals spanning most mammalian orders, they demonstrate that neither corrected basal metabolic rate nor body temperature significantly correlate with the relative surface area of the maxilloturbinal. These results challenge the hypothesis of thermal regulation being linked to respiratory bone structure.

So, what could be linked with the thermoregulation of mammals? Researchers proposed 3 more hypothesis. First of all, environmental conditions could have a bigger role: “the maxilloturbinal function could have a more prominent heat/moisture exchange role in species that face harsh environmental conditions, thus helping to limit spurious heat and moisture loss”. Another major role of the maxilloturbinal is water conservation. As an example, the naked mole-rat avoid breathing through the mouth when performing energy intensive digging because the lips close behind the digging incisors and this species has the lowest value of predicted Maxillo RSA of the entire sample. But most of all, the factor could be a multifactorial physiological question. What is the relation of the maxilloturbinal with the overall nasal cavity? Do other functions play a role in the evolution of this body part, such as its protective role against toxic elements? Is it linked with brain cooling?

Well, imaging will certainly give them an answer in the future!

*Detailed view of the maxilloturbinal in selected mammalian species with peculiar thermal and metabolic conditions or that undergo different forms of heterothermy* (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39994-1)

Get access to one of our services!

You need Micro-CT or another imaging technology or expertise that France-BioImaging provides? To get open access, please login via Euro-BioImaging website! You just have to choose the technology you want to use, then submit your proposal. All applications will be processed by the Euro-BioImaging Hub in close relation with France-BioImaging. And of course, all scientists regardless of their affiliation, area of expertise or field of activity can benefit from open access services! Users whose projects will be validated by Euro-BioImaging will benefit from a waiver for the access cost on France-BioImaging core facilities (https://france-bioimaging.org/access/).

Martinez, Q., Okrouhlík, J., Šumbera, R. et al. Mammalian maxilloturbinal evolution does not reflect thermal biology. Nat Commun 14, 4425 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39994-1

Explore the beauty of the invisible world through the 2024 FBI digital calendar!

Enjoy the diversity of microscopy techniques, models and applications represented, one image at a time. All 12 images used for this calendar were submitted to France-BioImaging Image Contest 2023.

A big thank you again to all the participants!

You can download the A4 print version (one month per page) 2024 FBI digital calendar here:

France-BioImaging digital calendar 2024 Download

If you wish to use it as your computer desktop, you can download a PNG version of each month here:

January 24

February 24

March 24

April 24

May 24

June 24

July 24

August 24

September 24

October 24

November 24

December 24

In order to answer image data analysis demands, France-BioImaging is launching its first data machine learning competition: welcome to the Light My Cells challenge!