First Carl Zeiss workshop on correlative microscopy in life sciences

With the aim of further strengthening the development of correlative microscopy in the life sciences, Carl Zeiss invited selected guests to an international workshop in the newly opened ZEISS Microscopy Labs in Munich in early October 2011. More than 40 scientists from around the world joined Zeiss to discuss the current state of the art.

“A concerted effort of all related disciplines along the lab workflow will be necessary to move Correlative Microscopy in Life Sciences to its next phase,” stated Dr. Ulrich Simon, President and CEO of Carl Zeiss MicroImaging in his welcome address. Simon pointed out: “The goal of the workshop is to establish a common understanding of the current state of the art, define current gaps and ideally develop a plan for a concerted initiative to address the gaps.”

Six exciting keynote lectures covering topics from “Cryo TEM Workflow”, Jürgen Plitzko, Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry (Munich) to “Correlative Markers”, Mark Ellisman, University of California San Diego (USCD), National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR), “Integrated Systems”, David Piston,Vanderbuilt University Medical Center, “Correlative Array Tomography”, Roger Wepf, Electron Microscopy ETH Zürich (EMEZ), “Coordinate Transfer Concepts”, Perrine Bomme, Institut Pasteur Imagopole and “FIB/SEM Workflow”, Sriram Subramaniam, National Institutes of Health (NIH), illustrated the huge variety of subjects and tasks that need to be addressed. In subsequent work groups the scientists, together with R&D and product management from Carl Zeiss, discussed which topics should take center stage in future developments. Finally, the whole group focused on prioritizing the results of the work groups.

Feedback from the participants was markedly positive. The organizers of the workshop, Thomas Albrecht and Christian Boeker from Carl Zeiss, jointly responsible for Correlative Microscopy are pleased at the result: “One participant wrote to us that he felt it was one of the best meetings he’d ever been to – that’s just about the best way to sum up the reactions of many participants. In addition, we have learned a lot from our guests and have a much better overview of the next steps to be taken.”