Minisymposium on Microscopy in Biopharma Applications 

This session will focus on the recent explosive growth of digital microscopy technologies in biotech, biopharma and life-sciences industries especially in the preclinical and clinical space. This year, the session will focus on 3D imaging and quantitative analysis of cleared tissues. The talks will revolve around sample preparation, 3D imaging and 3D image analysis of cleared samples for studying the vasculature, drug delivery and immune-cell distribution in tumors.

• Ernst Stelzer will be giving a plenary lecture on lightsheet microscopy technology

Confirmed speakers for the session.

• Per Uhlén, Karolinska Institute, Sweden (3D distribution of immune-cells in murine tumors).
• Friedemann Kiefer, Max Planck Institute, Muenster (3D analysis of the vasculature in normal and disease states).
• Simon Walker-Samuel, University College London (3D imaging to quantify drug-delivery in tumor tissue).
• Hans-Ulrich Dodt, Medical University of Vienna and Vienna University of Technology (Clearing and imaging of human brain tumors).

Minisymposium on Structured Illumination: A review of the state of the art

Structured illumination is powerful technique to improve resolution in microscopy. While it had a major impact on the field significant current research points to the potential for major advances in the future. This minisymposium will present an overview of the state of the art.

A keynote lecture by a founder of the field Rainer Heintzmann will be complemented by a session on the topic.

Confirmed speakers for the session:

• Thomas Huser [Biomolecular Photonics Group] – Bielefeld, Germany
• Anne Sentenac [Institut Fresnel] – Marseille, France
• Jean-Christophe Olivo-Marin [Institut Pasteur] – Paris, France

Minisymposium on machine in bioimage analysis and microscopy

Machine learning is one of the main themes of this year’s conference. The conference starts with a workshop on machine learning, followed by keynote plenary lectures, contributed presentations and this minisymposium.

Our keynote speaker on machine learning is:

Speakers in the machine learning workshop:

• Christophe Zimmer [Institut Pasteur] – Paris, France
• Julien Mairal [INRIA] – Grenoble, France
• Seth Flaxman [Imperial College London] – London, UK

Introductory plenary speakers:

• Michael Elad [Technion], Haifa, Israel
• Florian Jug [Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics] – Dresden, Germany

Confirmed speakers for the minisymposium:

• Molly Maleckar [Allen Institute of Cell Science] –  Seattle, Washington, USA
• Steve Presse [Arizona State University] –  Phoenix, Arizona, USA
• Christophe Zimmer [Institut Pasteur] – Paris, France

Minisymposium on quantitative tools in subcellular trafficking

Microscopy tools play a central tool in cell biology. However, the impact of microscopy has been significantly higher in subfield where images could be taken in one focal plane such as the plasma membrane. This minisymposium addresses the problem of subcellular trafficking which is key to the functions of cells. As this is genuinely 3D problem developments have been more limited. The minisymposium presents different related cell biological questions and methods to address them.

Fred Maxfield (Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, USA)  will present a plenary lecture on “Using microscopy to dissect endolysosomal trafficking”.

Confirmed speakers for the minisymposium:

• Ludger Johannes (Curie Institute, Paris, France). Topic: Defining the molecular pathways from endocytosis to early endosomes
• Daniel Wüstner (Syddansk Universitet, Odense, Denmark). Topic: Quantitative microscopy tools to analyze sterol transport on the endolysosomal pathway
• Geert van den Bogaart (Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, Groningen, Netherlands). Topic: Cargo sorting and organization of membrane trafficking