Super-resolution in the North 2023 aims to bring together three different disciplinary and career path groups. The organisers are targeting an attendance of researchers (including a number of dedicated plenary and Early Career Researcher talks) principally from higher education and research institutions in the Midlands, Scotland and North of England.
We wish to bring together life scientists who are new and early adopters of super-resolution microscopy techniques, and optical and computational researchers (typically with a physics background) who seek to establish new techniques, or improve the accuracy, or to broaden the application of existing super-resolution techniques to different areas of life science.
We will be inviting commercial manufacturers and core facilities specialised in super-resolution software, microscopes and equipment, to establish knowledge exchange and co-creation of super-resolution tools for life science.
Please join us to discuss detailed advances of super-resolution development and applications.
Scientific Organisers
Alex Payne-Dwyer
Alex is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of York. He specializes in studying biomolecular condensates, and their capillary and single-molecule physics, using fluorescence coupled with optical tweezers. These condensates have diverse functions, underpinning antimicrobial resistance, managing biological memory, and even contributing to carbon fixation.
His background is in physical chemistry and optics, but during his PhD at Durham University, he developed into a multidisciplinary light microscopist and image analyst. He has subsequently designed and delivered projects ranging from a clinical trial on human fertility, to postdoctoral work in cardiac imaging, and a JSPS Fellowship focused on molecular cell signalling in cancer. He constantly seeks new models, organisms, and condensates to investigate and finds ways to measure their behavior on the smallest scales possible with light.
He is a leader for the representation of ECR scientists at York and informs strategy for improved Research Culture. He also advocates for Open Research standards in light microscopy through the QUAREP-LiMi network.
Mark Leake
Since 2013 Mark has been the Chair of Biological Physics in the University of York, and heads the Biological Physics Group. His primary research interest lies in addressing unresolved biological questions, which are intractable with conventional bulk ensemble average methods, by developing new single-molecule microscopy, to advance understanding of native cell biology. His most important independent scientific contribution is the conception/development of multidimensional fluorescence imaging and analytical tools allowing single-molecule characterization in molecular machines in vivo at millisecond time scales, including invention of multicolour ‘slimfield’ super-resolution imaging and photophysical algorithms quantifying molecular composition, architecture and mobility, and is pushing forward the emergence of a new field of ‘single-molecule cellular biophysics.’
