Optical Microscopy for Biomedical Sciences

Description of content
Optical microscopy is probably the most used instrumental technique in life sciences as imaging cells, tissues and synthetic biomaterials is a cornerstone of many biomedical engineering projects. This course will provide the fundamental understanding about optical microscopy necessary to properly design, execute and analyse an imaging experiment. 
The most common techniques in bioimaging such as brightfield, epifluorescence, confocal and super-resolution microscopy will be discussed and their advantages and disadvantages analysed to provide to the students the knowledge to choose the best technique for a specific research question. The course will include a practical session where sample preparation, imaging and image analysis will be performed by the students. The course therefore covers the theoretical and practical aspects of optical microscopy and will focus on its use in biomedical engineering fields such as nanomedicine, regenerative medicine, chemical and cell biology.

The following topics are treated:
 
-    Fluorescence theory, labels and labeling
-    Basic optics and anatomy of a microscope
-    Brightfield microscopy, darkfield microscopy, phase contrast microscopy, (quantitative) polarized light microscopy, differential interference contrast microscopy,
-    Epifluorescence, confocal microscopy, total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy
-    Super-resolution microscopy
-    fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, Förster energy resonance transfer, fluorescence (cross) correlation spectroscopy, fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy

Literature/study material used:
NA
 
Registration:
Please register at the TU/e, course code: 8NM20 at least 4 weeks before the start of the course. Osiris registration will be done retroactively when results from the TU/e are received.
 
Mandatory for students in own Master’s programme:
No.
 
Optional for students in other GSLS Master’s programme:
No.
 
Prerequisite knowledge:
NA