France-BioImaging wishes you happy holidays and a nice summer vacation! The FBI newsletter (and the communication officer) is also having a break. But, no worries, your monthly newsletter is coming back in September!

Here we go for the latest news and upcoming events!

Save the date: FBI Annual Meeting 2023 is coming!

We are happy to announce our 8th France-BioImaging Annual Meeting! Happening on December 13th and 14th 2023, this year’s edition will be hosted by our new Toulouse node at the Centre de Biologie Intégrative (Toulouse, France).

The Annual meeting will highlight France-BioImaging’s development and perspectives. Imaging scientists and users from the infrastructure’s nodes will present their key projects and demonstrate how they have benefited from France-BioImaging and its community.

More information about the program and the registration coming soon!

The results are here! Africa-France Joint Initiative for Biological Imaging

We are happy to announce that our 1st Africa-France Joint Initiative for Biological Imaging calls, in coordination with the African BioImaging Consortium and Imaging Africa, is funding 11 projects!

As a reminder, these two calls (“External access” and “Twinning exchange”) have been primarily designed to strengthen collaboration between African and French researchers and engineers in all fields in biology, health and agro-ecology, where the contribution of the rapidly expanding technologies of digital imaging has become essential. The ambition of these calls is in line with the anticipation of bilateral research funding programs between Europe and Africa in the framework of the Horizon Europe Program.

Multiple scientists from the entire African continent have responded to the calls, covering 8 countries: Senegal, Togo, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Uganda and South Africa. Besides, we are very glad that 5 of our nodes (Paris-Centre, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Ile-de-France Sud and Bretagne-Loire) are going to work in the framework of the Africa-France Joint Initiative for Biological Imaging

Finally, the projects have been selected for their need to access imaging resources in response to key challenges that African researchers are facing. In these projects, scientists tackle issues from several topics going from infectious diseases to marine biology, but also cancer research, plant biology and climate change.

You want to learn more, discover the selected projects right here!

The National Coordination went on a bioimaging Tour de France!

Just like the famous bicycle race, the FBI National Coordination did a little Tour de France where we visited 2 of our 9 nodes in one week: the Montpellier node and the Ile-de-France node!

This visit was the perfect occasion to have a look on the broad range of technologies and expertise both nodes are providing in open access to their users, going from electron microscopy, light microscopy and cytometry but also sample preparation and bioimage analysis.

Furthermore, we discussed about the future of the nodes and their promising perspectives. The core facilities and R&D teams are working towards novel innovative imaging technologies that, we hope, will be in open access very soon!

Thank you to all of the following core facilities and R&D teams for the warm welcome!

• MRI
• PIBBS
• IPAM
• OV-CI
• MIMA2
• Morphoscope
• ImCy
• Imagerie-Gif
• PFIC

Check our news page to have an overview with photos of our visit: france-bioimaging.org/announcement/the-fbi-national-coordination-went-on-a-bioimaging-tour-de-france

Submit your abstract for the EuBI User Forum on Plant Imaging!

Euro-BioImaging is organizing a sixth online User Forum on Thursday, October 12, 2023, from 14:00-17:00 CET. The topic is “Understanding Plant Biology.” This event will highlight the importance of cutting-edge imaging technologies in support of plant biology and agroecology. We will showcase the specific expertise available at our Nodes across Europe through case studies presented in tandem with the research community.

As always for the EuBI User Forum, France-BioImaging Nodes and users are invited to submit abstracts of relevant work in the area of Plant Imaging that they would like to highlight in this event. You can submit abstracts here – https://forms.gle/X5VqgKcXWkKTABu77.

The deadline for abstract submission is July 24th. 

A custom-made High-Content Screening method to identify therapeutic drugs for a fatal neurodegenerative disorder

High-content screening (HCS) is a technology used in drug discovery and research to analyze cell phenotype. Using automated cell manipulations and microscopy platforms, it is possible to easily screen the effects of selected drugs on the model’s phenotype. This technology, available at France-BioImaging at Montpellier Ressources Imaging (MRI), has been used in a recent study identifying therapeutic drugs for a fatal neurodegenerative disorder, the Giant Axonal Neuropathy (GAN).

High-Content Screening uses automated cell manipulations and automated microscopy platforms to easily visualize the modification of the phenotype. Image acquisition and analysis are done in batches and rapidly, which limit potential bias as the process will be identical from one well to another. A huge advantage that prevents issues and saves time!

Learn more about how HCS was essential in this study in the full article: france-bioimaging.org/announcement/hcs-to-identify-therapeutic-drugs-for-gan

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