Short term scientific mission in Porto, Portugal, by Dr. Yury Belyaev

In April 2023, Dr. Yury Belyaev, light microscopy manager of the Microscopy Imaging Center of the University of Bern, visited the Advanced Light Microscopy (ALM) and the Bioimaging scientific platforms at i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, the University of Porto, Portugal. For this 5-day short-term scientific mission (STSM), Yury Belyaev received financial support from the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Innovator Grant COMULIS (Correlated Multimodal Imaging in Life Sciences) MultEMPlex IG17121. 

The aim of STSM was to show a feasibility of implementation of super-resolution and lifetime microscopy into the existing micro computer tomography(µCT)/light microscopy (LM) correlative workflows at the University of Bern. The samples of mouse kidney from the µCT group of PD Dr. Ruslan Hlushchuk, Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern, were investigated using the Leica Stellaris 8 FALCON (FAst Lifetime CONtrast) STED (STimulated Emission depletion) confocal microscope. Different sample preparation protocols suitable for high-resolution STED imaging have been also tested.

The obtained results allow higher correlation precision with additional tissue specificity and possibility of label-free imaging in existing multimodal correlative workflows and open the possibility to develop it further in the direction of electron microscopy. The scientific outcome of STSM will be presented in one of the upcoming meetings on correlative multimode imaging. Finally, the visit has contributed to the development of scientific collaboration between Portugal and Switzerland.

The Grantee would like to thank COST Action for financial support and the members of the ALM and Bioimaging scientific platforms at the i3S institute for their hospitality, friendly atmosphere, and excellent scientific input during this STSM.