| |
|
The Gulliver Initiative: Multiscale Bioimaging from Molecules to Organisms
Imaging techniques have dramatically accelerated biological research at all levels of spatial and temporal resolution. New imaging modalities, in combination with innovative labeling methods, can provide information about biochemical composition, biophysical properties, and molecular interactions within complex samples. By combining appropriate methods, it is now possible to obtain highly synergistic information about biological material. A multiscale approach will thus be important for key DOE research goals including bioenergy, bioremediation, and carbon sequestration, as well as areas related to human disease such as cancer and neuroscience.
Despite the clear potential benefits of applying a range of microscopies to problems in energy and medicine, it has proven exceedingly difficult to design, build, and use highly integrated instruments that together span a wider range of capabilities than are provided by any one imaging device. Barriers include currently incompatible detector technologies, paucity of optimized labels, haphazard control software, and lack of data processing and visualization tools. A team of LBNL scientists has started the Gulliver initiative to address these barriers in close collaboration with associated institutions UCB, UCSF, LLNL, Sandia, and regional non- and for-profit organizations. The plan includes the development of:
(1) imaging and detection technologies whose spatial resolution levels range from molecules up to whole organisms,
(2) technologies that address all relevant time scales,
(3) labeling methods that facilitate studies across multiple scales and imaging modalities,
(4) instrumentation and computational methods to correlate, integrate and visualize imaging information from these different imaging modalities, and
(5) a clear focus on the specific and important biological research goals that require these capabilities.
To identify all interested participants and to focus plans for the initiative, we have organized this workshop. The goals of the workshop are to survey some of the cutting-edge advances in microscopy, including novel directions that are still in development, and to plan how we can best accomplish the goals of the Gulliver initiative. The workshop will feature two days of presentations and discussions focused on the primary application areas (bioenergy and cancer biology). The third day of the workshop is reserved for planning sessions by the participants in the initiative.
Program
Schedules:
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Friday, May 18, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
|
