Scientific Organisers: Stefanie Reichelt, Alex Sossick, Nick Barry, Alessandro Esposito and Kirti Prakash
The meeting will begin at 1pm BST.
As part of the 'Imaging ONEWORLD' series, the focus of these lectures is on microscopy and image analysis methods and how to apply these to your research. Almost all aspects of imaging such as sample preparation, labelling strategies, experimental workflows, ‘how-to’ image and analyse, as well as facilitating collaborations and inspiring new scientific ideas will be covered. Speakers will be available for questions and answers. The organisers, CRUK CI core facility staff, Gurdon Institute, MRC-LMB, MRC Cancer Unit and NPL will be able to continue the discussion and provide advice on your imaging projects.
Speaker
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Dr Kelly Rogers
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
Dr Kelly Rogers is Head of the Division of Advanced Technology and Biology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia. After completion of her PhD at Griffith University, she undertook postdoctoral training at the Institut Pasteur in Paris before returning to Australia to establish the Centre for Dynamic Imaging (CDI). The CDI is both a core facility and research lab. The R&D component is focused primarily on the application and development of advanced microscopy methods in close collaboration with research teams at the institute. Most recently, her team used a custom-built lattice light sheet microscope and multidisciplinary approach to perform a volumetric analysis of red blood cell invasion by the malaria parasite. Her lab has also made a significant contribution to several important discoveries made in studies on cancer and immune cell function.
Speaker's Abstract
The scope of what you can achieve with live cell microscopy techniques is often limited by phototoxicity, low spatial resolution and a poor signal-to-noise ratio. Indeed, live imaging studies on Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite causing the deadly blood stage disease of Malaria have been extremely challenging owing to its very small size (1-2 m) and the speed at which host cell invasion occurs. As such, an essential stage of invasion, whereby the parasite becomes enclosed in a parasitophorous vacuole membrane inside the human erythrocyte, remains largely uncharacterised. We combined the gentle imaging approach of lattice light sheet microscopy together with various fluorescent probes and analysis techniques for characterising host-pathogen interactions and also various other important cellular functions. In this talk, I will present our recent studies on the blood stage of malaria as well as several other studies where we have applied a range of microscopy techniques to address questions about important human diseases.