A 2-day hybrid meeting was held at the CNB in Madrid on the 9th and 10th of October. All projects were represented and updates on each of the ongoing work packages were delivered.
On Day 1 SiriusXT presented the latest data from the SXT-100 including details of the recently developed capillary-based sample workflow. The microscope is now capable of imaging cells grown on flat grids as well as suspended in thin-walled glass capillaries for full rotation tomography.
Dimitri Scholz from UCD presented work on a correlative SXT-EM workflow in which samples are first imaged in SXT and then in TEM following freeze substitution, resin embedding and slicing. He also presented the first images from the new 3D cutting edge-excitation optical microscope: a fluorescence ultramicrotome- based 3D microscopy for imaging of tissue blocks. Axel Ekman from JYU presented his study on SXT dose optimization, while Visa Ruokolainen also from JYU spoke about the latest development in expansion microscopy, a technique designed to overcome the optical resolution limit of conventional microscopes by instead expanding the sample to be imaged.
Day 2 covered the scientific presentations starting with Maija Vihinen-Ranta from JYU discussing the data from their soon-to-be-submitted scientific paper on how herpesvirus infection remodels mitochondrial organization and metabolism. Pablo Gastaminza from CNB Madrid discussed recent correlative FM & SXT data from the SXT-100 and how this is leading to insights into the mechanism of action of anti-viral drugs in hepatitis C infected cells. Nicola Fletcher and Chris Evans from UCD described their latest work on developing 3D cell models of hepatitis E infection. These spheroids have been dissociated and the cells placed on TEM grids for SXT imaging. Anthoula Chatzimpinou talked about using SXT to understand the ultrastructure of microglia activation.
The final talk of the meeting was from Ralf Bartenschlager and Giulia Mizzon, who talked about leveraging the power of SXT in following the progression of the Dengue virus using both synchrotron and lab-based SXT microscopes, as well as through correlation with light and EM imaging. Finally, the meeting concluded with a tour of the CryoEM facility at CNB. Well done to Victoria Castro, Pablo Gastaminza and Gema Calvo for organizing such an enjoyable and informative meeting and thanks to all CoCID project participants for the constructive discussions.