Presentation
Over the last fifteen years, biological imaging has been profoundly transformed thanks to the work of a large interdisciplinary community composed by physicists, chemists, biologists, instrumentalists, computer scientists, mathematicians and physicians… This community is simultaneously at the forefront of fundamental research at the interface between photonics and living matter, and at the genesis of new analysis tools in line with biological questions. New developments in bioimaging are continuously breaking barriers in terms of resolution, speed, minimal invasiveness, and adaptability to molecular studies in living organisms. As such, the main mission of the MiFoBio school is to ensure the knowledge transfer within the community, training the younger generations at the bioimaging interface in the plurality of its components while also promoting the integration of new skills, particularly in the field of analysis, data management and modeling.
Contents
MiFoBio is a multidisciplinary school focusing on biological and technological advances in life imaging. It brings together a large community of biologists, physicists, instrumentalists, chemists and mathematicians. Microscopy as well as in-vivo photomanipulation techniques (optogenetics in particular) constitute the heart of the school’s activity. However, the implementation of these techniques and their exploitation to analyze the dynamic organization of living organisms require to master a diverse set of know-hows: molecular and cell biology, chemistry for the synthesis of molecular probes, optics, physics for the development of instrumentation and light sources, computer science for the acquisition, analysis and storage of images, and finally methods of modeling and interpretation of these measurements.


Organization
The MiFoBio school offers a unique combination of courses, roundtables and hands-on workshops. In addition to internationally recognized speakers of the highest scientific level, MiFoBio benefits from an exceptional instrumental park supporting a set of workshops led and presented by the participants themselves. During the school, there are more than 90 different worshops on the most advanced techniques and approaches in the field: ultra-high resolution, light sheet microscopy, adaptive optics, nonlinear optics, correlative microscopy… The goal is to set up a temporary full-blown interdisciplinary institute, offering the participants a complete vision of the domain, ranging from the biological question to the image and data exploitation, with a focus on the instrument and up to modeling and automated analysis. This approach is done at all levels, and is declined according to the role and project of each participant, just like in their permanent laboratories.
Thematic axes
– Labeling strategies, probes, and contrast agents
– The challenge of quantification in nanoscopy
– Artificial intelligence for biological imaging
– Multicellular imaging: organoids, tissues, embryos
– Molecule’s dynamics and interactions in living cells
– Cellular signaling, mechanobiology, mechanotransduction
– Waves on living matter

Concerned public
This school, organized by the members of the GDR ImaBio, reaches a much wider public through calls to other organizations (CEA, INSERM, INRIA, universities… ) and academic societies. Any researcher, lecturer, engineer, post-doc or PhD student from different disciplines involved in the development or implementation of functional microscopy tools is welcome (subject to the available number of places!).