The 4th Super-Resolution Summer School

The 4th Super-Resolution Summer School took place at ESRIC between 31 July and 4 August 2017. 36 researchers from 18 countries attended, including students from previous years as well as some new faces: August 2017

The 4th Super-Resolution Summer School took place at ESRIC between 31 July and 4 August 2017. 36 researchers from 18 countries attended, including students from previous years as well as some new faces. The ESRIC Summer School provides the opportunity to learn from experts in the field of super-resolution microscopy and gain experience of the state-of-the-art systems available. This year the summer school was funded by a BBSRC Stars grant awarded in March 2017 and this funding enabled the format of the summer school to be developed.

The teaching faculty provided excellent instruction about super-resolution methods with subjects ranging from STED and dSTORM given by the pioneers of the techniques, Christian Eggling and Sebastien Van de Linde. Discussion about new probes and methods was led by Silvio Rizzoli, Jonas Ries and Erik Manders. Susan Cox provided an excellent talk on Single Molecule Localisation Microscopy analysis and the seminar section was closed by the Royal Microscopial Society President, Professor Michelle Peckham.

New workshops were included this year, two of which were led by the academic faculty that has pioneered the use of new super-resolution methods. Ricardo Henriques taught students about the use and application of the live imaging technique SRRF and quality control software SQUIRREL, while Colin Rickman described the use of PALM for imaging endocytosis.

Nikon, Zeiss, Leica, Gattaquant and Hammamatsu, who have supported the summer school since its inception, provided excellent workshops featuring their state of the art equipment. Oxford NanoImaging, Amaris and Abbelight participated for the first time to our Summer school.

The event was organised by Karina Lang of the Royal Microscopial Society, whose hard work was greatly appreciated, ensuring the smooth running of this event and an excellent entertainment programme. The 4th Super-Resolution Summer School is also grateful for the technical support from the BBSRC funded postdocs, students and facility staff, without whom this summer school would not have been delivered so effectively and successfully.

Students enjoyed dinner at the Dome, a Ghost tour of Edinburgh and a barbeque at the Scottish Café with views over Princes Street preparing for the Edinburgh International Festival.

The summer school runs a very packed schedule, students commenting on the high quality of the taught programme and the volume of knowledge imparted. ‘It will really make a difference to my PhD’ commented one student and another has promised to ‘come back in two weeks to use the ESRIC systems’.

Already the organisers are excited about planning ESRIC 2018 as the recent Wellcome Trust Capital Equipment award will allow systems and range of techniques to be further developed, ensuring that this Summer School continues to provide a world class education in the Nobel Prize winning super-resolution microscopy methodologies.