OMIBS 2021 IN-PERSON microscopy course at the MBL, Woods Hole in August

[Alison J. North-2]

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Dear fellow microscopists,
We are excited to announce the 2021 "Optical Microscopy and Imaging in the Biomedical Sciences" (OMIBS) course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, USA.  The course will run this year from Aug 19th – Aug 29th and we are hoping with every cell in our bodies that it will take place IN PERSON.   Please join us or encourage your lab members or colleagues to attend the late summer OMIBS course on beautiful Cape Cod!
Applications are accepted through Thursday May 13th and should be submitted via the course website at:   https://www.mbl.edu/education/courses/optical-microscopy-imaging/
There will inevitably be some changes to the course due to ongoing COVID restrictions – these include fewer students, and a combination of in-person and remote instruction from academic faculty.  Laboratory practicals and microscope demonstrations will likewise be accomplished via a mix of in-person and remote opportunities.  However, everybody involved with the course, from the MBL staff to the course directors, faculty and staff, and our fabulous and loyal commercial faculty are excited to take on this challenge and deliver a fantastic overall experience for the students, if a tad unconventional!  Since the situation for everybody is changing on a weekly basis, please visit the COVID FAQs link for the latest information on what attendees of the course can expect.  For people working outside the USA, we regret to say that it might be advisable to wait until 2022 to apply for the course, as the situation with travel, visas and quarantines etc. will still be very much up in the air.

We hope to see you at the MBL soon!
Alison North (Rockefeller University) and Joerg Bewersdorf (Yale University), Course Directors

Cost:  Tuition: $3,700.  Room and board: approx. $810.00 (depending on the number of nights of occupancy).   The course in 2021 is limited to 16 students, to ensure individual microscope stands and COVID restrictions for social distancing.  Some limited financial assistance may be available.
Course overview:  The course takes participants all the way from the fundamentals of optical microscopy through to state-of-the-art, multi-dimensional wide field fluorescence, confocal, multiphoton, multispectral, deconvolution, super-resolution and light-sheet microscopy systems.  Participants will learn through lectures, hands-on exercises, problem sets, demonstrations and discussions, specifically designed to drive home the principles and applications of modern microscopy.
A strong emphasis is placed on sample preparation, including choice of fluorescent probes and fluorescent proteins, and tissue clearing and refractive index matching.  Great stress will also be placed on ‘picking the right tool for the job’.  Students will learn to obtain and interpret microscope images of high quality, to assess data for common errors and artifacts, and to perform quantitative optical measurements. In the problem sets, small groups of students will acquire, analyze, interpret and present imaging data, thereby demonstrating their progress toward mastering microscopy and imaging skills.
Who will benefit?  The course is designed primarily for research scientists, postdoctoral trainees and graduate students in the biological sciences, as well as imaging facility directors and staff. Non-biologists seeking a comprehensive introduction to microscopy and digital imaging in the biomedical sciences will also benefit greatly from this course.
Specimens: Live and fixed specimens will be provided for use in laboratory exercises and demonstrations.  Students can bring their own, fixed biological specimens and discuss individual research problems with the faculty.  Students are also encouraged to make appointments with our highly experienced commercial faculty outside of scheduled classes to acquire data from their specimens using the available state-of-the-art equipment.

Academic faculty will include the following:
Allen, John (MBL/Vendor faculty)
Bewersdorf, Joerg (Yale University)
Day, Richard (Indiana University)
di Domenico, Angelique (New York Stem Cell Foundation)
Fullerton, Stephanie (Vendor faculty)
King, Sharon (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)
La Riviere, Patrick (University of Chicago)
Lavis, Luke (Janelia Research Campus)
Legant, Wesley (UNC Chapel Hill)
Lessard, Mark (Yale University)
Leung, Jacqueline (Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID/NIH)
McCall, Andrew (SUNY Buffalo)
McIlvain, Jim (MBL/Vendor faculty)
North, Alison (The Rockefeller University)
O’Shea, Clodagh (Salk Institute)
Richardson, Douglas (Harvard University)
Shaw, Sidney (Indiana University)
Turnbull, Lynne (Vendor faculty)
Yellen, Gary (Harvard Medical School)

We are grateful to the following companies for their loyal and enthusiastic support of the OMIBS course:
Major support:  Hamamatsu, PCO, Leica, Nikon, Zeiss, Olympus
Additional support:  Abbelight, Abberior, Arivis, AVR Optics, Axiom Optics, BioVision, Bitplane, Bruker, Caliber ID, Chroma, Coherent, Double Helix, Ibidi, ISS, Mizar, Nanolive, Thermofisher, Thorlabs, TomoCube, VisiTech and others who are yet to be confirmed!