Highlights from the 3rd Euro-BioImaging User Forum “At the Forefront of Neuroscience”

The third edition of the Euro-BioImaging User Forum was held on Tuesday, April 5th, 2022 - an afternoon of exchanges on the importance of imaging technologies in support of brain research. The event highlighted the expertise available at Euro-BioImaging Nodes through case studies presented in tandem with the research community. 169 people joined us for this online conference, including researchers, students, core facility staff and industry representatives from 28 countries in Europe and around the world. Euro-BioImaging thanks everyone who participated in this event - both speakers and audience!

If you missed it, you can watch the recordings of these talks on YouTube

The 3rd Euro-BioImaging User Forum highlighted the vast imaging toolkit that can be mobilized to support neuroscience research, from cellular imaging to human imaging. In his keynote talk, Hervé Boutin demonstrated multiple imaging approaches that give insight into neuroinflammation, showing that “cross-modality” makes it possible to see more. That is the value-added of infrastructures like Euro-BioImaging, which allows researchers to gain access to multiple imaging modalities and the expertise needed to combine them in a research project.

The user presentations highlighted the excellent neuroscience research that has been carried out with technologies and expertise available in open access from Euro-BioImaging Nodes. To conclude the event, Euro-BioImaging Med-Hub Director Linda Chaabane said, “This is a great opportunity for researchers - the imaging community holds the keys to so many modalities to look at the processes and structures of the brain.” And Euro-BioImaging Director General John Eriksson remarked, “It’s been fascinating to see this research striving to understand the brain at the structural and microscopic level, as well as in the context of human health and brain disease.”

Keynote Speakers:

• Hervé Boutin, University of Manchester, on “In vivo imaging modalities applied to NeuroImaging.”

  Watch this talk on YouTube.

• Serena Ding, Max Planck Institute for Animal Behaviour, “Imaging and measuring behaviour to understand the brain.”

  Read the abstract here.

Featuring research in collaboration with our Nodes: 

• Joao Castelhano, University of Coimbra, on "A TMS and multimodal molecular imaging study of the Interhemispheric inhibition/excitation imbalance: project overview" in collaboration with the Brain Imaging Network (BIN) Node

• Lisa De Santi, Fondazione Toscana G. Monasterio, on "3D Brain 18F-[FDG] PET Segmentation and classification for diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease using deep neural network" in collaboration with the Molecular Imaging Italian Node

  Watch the video on YouTube.

• Martin Gajdoš, CEITEC Masaryk University, on "How to identify epileptogenic zone in MRI negative epilepsy with arterial spin labelling data" in collaboration with the Advanced Light Microscopy and Medical Imaging Node Brno CZ

  Watch the video on YouTube.

• Angela Getz, Bordeaux Imaging Center/IINS, on "Studying AMPA Receptor Dynamics with Lattice Light Sheet and Multiphoton Microscopy" in collaboration with France BioImaging

• Ângela Inácio, University of Coimbra, on "Aberrant hippocampal transmission and behavior in mice with a stargazin mutation linked to intellectual disability" in collaboration with Portuguese Platform of BioImaging PPBI

  Watch the video on YouTube.

As the User Forum shows, many Euro-BioImaging Nodes have their own unique specialization and expertise related to neuroscience research. The close collaboration between scientists and experts from open access imaging facilities such as Euro-BioImaging Nodes is leading to scientific outcomes that have a positive impact on understanding our basic neurological functions as well as on human health.

Many thanks to all who participated in our third Euro-BioImaging User Forum. We look forward to seeing you at our 4th User Forum in October 2022 – for a closer look at Infectious Disease.