Course Overview

The Montreal Light Microscopy Course is designed to provide basic and advanced instruction in optical microscopy. Students, fellows, technical staff and research scientists are welcome to attend. Lectures will be presented in the morning, while the afternoons will be devoted towards gaining practical experience with a variety of optical microscopy techniques. The modular format allows attendees maximum flexibility. Students can register for either Week I or Week 2 or both. Students can opt to attend the morning lectures, while those interested in more intensive instruction can apply for one of the twenty-four spots in the afternoon laboratory sessions that build on the morning lectures. Lectures will be presented by experts in optical microscopy drawn from the academic, government, and industrial sectors. The course will also provide opportunities for attendees to meet and exchange ideas through poster sessions. Breakfast, coffee breaks and lunch are included.

The first week of the course will be dedicated to basic training in light microscopy. We will provide instruction on how an image is formed in the microscope using different imaging modes (phase contrast, DIC, fluorescence, etc).  The emphasis will be on practical information such as alignment and troubleshooting.Central aspects of digital and live cell imaging will be covered as well. At the end of this week, students should feel comfortable using any research grade microscope to its full potential.

The second week we will present, demonstrate and test high-end instruments and techniques including multi-photon, laser based manipulations (FRAP, FLIP, etc), FRET, TIRF, and superresolution techniques. Discussions will focus on determining which technique is required for a given experiment and what to do with the data after acquisition. Therefore both acquisition and analysis tools and approaches will be presented.