At the beginning of last September, the International Workshop in Bioimaging “Emerging Tools in Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy for Systems Biology” was held at the Egas Moniz Building. This was the first event under a protocol of cooperation established in 2010 between the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) and the French state network of biomedical research institutes – the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM, France). This partnership for international cooperation in the field of Life Sciences, Medical Research and Health aims to promote scientific, medical and technological knowledge, strengthen research programmes, and foster top quality scientific exchange.

The workshop was jointly organized by the two institutions, and was included in the prestigious serious of international workshops of INSERM. Its structure consisted of three days of theoretical seminars at the Egas Moniz Building followed by four days of practical courses, held in Lisbon and in Paris.

The scientific organizers of the event were Professors Carmo Fonseca (IMM), Enrico Gratton (University of California), António Jacinto (IMM) and Maïté Coppey-Moisan (Institut Jacques Monod), who brought together a panel of 13 speakers, all of them internationally renowned researchers in this area, resulting in a wide exposure and debate on the most recent advances in fluorescence microscopy and its implications on the ability to quantify and conduct the computational analysis of a variety of cellular activities. The capacity to quantify and model is recognized as an essential and limiting factor in the development of Systems Biology which, according to Leroy Hood (President and co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle), “[…] is the science of discovering. Modelling, understand and, ultimately, design the dynamic relations between biological molecules that define living organisms”.

A major challenge in systems biology is the deduction of physical parameters (i.e. affinity rates and molecule binding constants) from experimental measurements. Thanks to the development of fluorescent probes and new microscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy methods, quantitative parameters such as molecular concentrations, diffusion coefficients, stoichiometry and residence time of molecules in complexes may be obtained in different locations within the cell and at different times with a high spatial and temporal resolution.

As a result of these advances, microscopic images have become increasingly sophisticated, creating a growing need for new image analysis systems, databases and viewing techniques. In this context, the group of guest researchers invited to this workshop brought a set of themes and issues that are crucial to the progress of current bioimaging, such as ” Fluorescent proteins: from natural diversity to advanced probes and sensors” (Konstantin Lukyanov, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow); “Single molecule microscopy” (Johan Elf, Biomedical Center, Uppsala); “3D image analysis in developmental biology” (Pavel Tomancak, Max Planck Institute, Germany); “Building cellular atlases with light” (Gene Myers, HHMI-Janelia Farm, US); “Reaction dynamics in living cells” (Hernan Grecco, Max Planck Institute, Dortmund); “Quantification of Protein Interaction using Fluorescence Fluctuations and Molecular Brightness Analysis in Scanning Microscopy” (Michelle Digman, University of California, Irvine); “Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy” (Petra Schwille, University of Technology, Dresden); “Spatio-temporal Image correlation spectroscopy” (Paul Wiseman, McGill University, Montreal). These topics were widely discussed by approximately 70 participants from various Portuguese and European research institutions.

The second part of the workshop was the responsibility of Doctor José Rino, director of the Bioimaging Unit of IMM, and was held in Lisbon. It consisted of a practical course for 12 participants who had been selected in advance among those who attended the theoretical component. The lectures and practical exercises were conducted on the premises of the Egas Moniz Building and taught by IMM tutors, using the high-quality microscopy and image analysis equipment of the Bioimaging Unit. The course lasted four days and was split into two complementary modules – the first focused on the most relevant aspects of choosing equipment and optimizing the parameters for image acquisition in living cells. The second introduced concepts of image digital processing in fluorescence quantitative microscopy. Students used the microscope images obtained during the lessons of the first module to develop the work of digital analysis in the second module. Using bright field and confocal microscopes, the work focused on topics such as image measurement, point spread function/deconvolution, detection/segmentation, location and construction of particle trajectory.

Another group of participants from the theoretical phase had the opportunity of attending the practical component held in Paris on 12-14 October and which focused on the microscopy techniques “Single Plane Illumination” and “Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy “. In the area of Live Sciences, the first has enabled major breakthrough in the three-dimensional analysis of specimens of considerable size, and the second is applied frequently in the study of molecular dynamics in living cells.

Overall, the workshop in Lisbon, including the theoretical and practical components, was, unequivocally, a successful event on several levels. On the one hand, it cemented objectives of the IMM-INSERM partnership, greatly encouraging scientific interaction and the internationalization of both institutions and participants. On the other hand, it was a real example of the joint organization of a major international event which actually involved staff from IMM, the Faculty of Medicine and INSERM.

The IMM-INSERM partnership anticipates the organisation of similar events in the future, to be held annually and alternately in Portugal and France. The next workshop is expected to take place in Paris at a date to be announced. However, the IMM- INSERM partnership protocol encourages other types of collaboration through scientific exchanges. These will take two forms: short-term (up to 12 months) exchanges for French and Portuguese researchers and/or doctors, and receiving doctors as part of the programme “Postes d’accueil pour internes et assistants” of INSERM. This last possibility enables a Portuguese doctor to work at an INSERM research unit for 1 or 2 years. In both initiatives, doctors will be evaluated and selected by scientific committees from both institutions. Additional information on these programmes is available at the Communication and Training Unit of IMM (ucom@fm.ul.pt).

Joana Costa, PhD
IMM – Communication & Training Unit
joanaccosta@fm.ul.pt