Sessions in 2012

Basic Techniques for Optical Microscopy

• Dates: Tuesday, 15 May to Thursday, 17 May 2012
• Instructor: Fumiyoshi Ishidate
• Session Title: Fluorescence confocal microscopy: from begginers to experts
• Microscope: Two-photon Fluorescence Confocal Microscope (LSM710 and LSM510 META NLO, Zeiss)
• Biography: Fumiyoshi Ishidate worked for Carl Zeiss Microscopy from 1970 to 2012, and currently holds several positions in academia including Visiting Professor at Kyoto University and Visiting Researcher at Tokyo University and Riken. Fumiyoshi is an author of one of the most popular books on microscopy, and is also one of the most skillful conforcal microscope instructor.

Single-molecule imaging in life science

• Dates: Tuesday, 5 June to Thursday, 7 June 2012
• Instructor: Yasushi Sako / Yoshiro Oikawa and Yoshifumi Hasegawa from Nikon
• Session Title: Single-molecule imaging in life science
• Microscopy: Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRF-C1Si, Nikon)
• Biography: Yasushi Sako obtained his PhD in 1991 from Kyoto University. After worked at Tokyo University, Nagoya University, and Osaka University as assistant or associate professor, he moved to RIKEN and became chief scientist in 2006. His research interests focus on intracellular reaction networks of biosignaling, structure and function of proteins, and optical microscopy.

Fast Frequency-domain FLIM for Live Cell Bioimaging

• Dates: Tuesday, 23 to Wednesday, 24 October 2012
• Instructor: Michiel Kregel, Ph.D., (Lambert Instruments BV, The Netherlands)
• Session Title: Fast Frequency-domain FLIM for Live Cell Bioimaging
• Microscopy: LIFA (Lambert Instruments Fluorescence Attachment) on Olympus IX71
• Biography: Dr. Michiel Kregel has a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Groningen on visible and near-infrared spectrometry of spiral galaxies, and has been active for 4 years as a consultant in spatial information technology before taking a position as product manager at Lambert Instruments BV two years ago. At Lambert Instruments he is responsible for product management and world-wide sales of the LIFA product line for FLIM-fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, and is actively involved in various collaborations with universities and industry.
• Abstract: Mapping the fluorescence lifetime allows quantitative study of molecular kinetics in living cells and fixed materials on the micro- and nano-scales. The fluorescence lifetime is highly quantitative because it is independent of variations in light intensity, concentration, and photo-bleaching.
      The applications of lifetime imaging are various; from ion imaging and oxygen imaging to drug discovery and medical diagnosis. The premier application of FLIM is the study of molecular interactions through FRET-Förster Resonance Energy Transfer. FLIM-FRET is nowadays used extensively in studying protein-protein interactions throughout cell-biology and pharmacy.
      In this workshop, participants will learn about the principles of FLIM and FRET and are introduced to the LIFA system for fast FLIM, focussing on key analysis features such as mapping the FRET efficiency. The LIFA is a fast camera-based FLIM system operating in the frequency domain that is very easy to setup and use. The LIFA can be attached to all brands of fluorescence microscopes and is also compatible with optical sectioning techniques such as TIRF and multi-beam confocal, and with automated microscopy.

First step for fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and fluorescence cross correlation spectroscopy of living cell

• Dates: Tuesday, 13 November to Thursday, 15 November 2012
• Instructor: Masataka Kinjo/ Shintaro Mikkuni /Fumiyoshi Ishidate
• Session Title: First step for fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and fluorescence cross correlation spectroscopy of living cell.
• Microscopy: Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (ConfoCor3, Zeiss)
• Biography: Masataka Kinjo obtained his PhD in 1985 from Jichi Medical School, Japan. After worked at Research Institute of Applied Electricity, Hokkaido University as assistant and associate professor, he became professor at Faculty of Advanced Life Science, Hokkaido University.  He spent two years in Karolinska Institute as a guest researcher.