Team Science Seminar - Dee Kavanagh and Chiara Pallini

The second Team Science Seminar was held on Wednesday 29th November 2017 at the University of Nottingham. Dee Kavanagh gave a talk on 'Single molecule imaging approaches to investigate membrane protein organisation', and Chiara Pallini presented on 'Platelet GPVI receptor spatial organization and signalling characterized by super resolution microscopy and cluster analysis.' The talks were attended by staff and students from the University of Nottingham from a variety of Schools.

Following the talks the Team Science committee took Dee and Chiara for a networking lunch at the newly refurbished Hipps café on A floor before embarking on a tour of the COMPARE and Cell Signalling labs. The tour was organised as to demonstrate some of the most current research being undertaken within the wider Cell Signalling group. Laura Humphrys, 3rd yr PhD student, was studying the functioning of melanopsin in astrocytes using optogenetics on the Zeiss 710 LSM. Mark Soave, MRC research fellow, demonstrated both the Molecular Devices Ultra and Micro plate readers to study ligand binding on adenosine A2a receptors in HEK293 cells. Joelle Goulding, COMPARE research fellow, explained the setup and use of the two newest microscope, the Olympus LV200 – a bioluminescence imager – and the PhaseFocus Livecyte – a quantitative live cell label-free cytometric microscope. Finally the tour met up with Robert Markus, SLIM (School of Life Sciences Imaging) team, who was able to demonstrate the Nottingham side of Super Resolution acquisition on the Zeiss ELYRA.

Altogether a very informative day in which Dee and Chiara were able to experience the Nottingham side of COMPARE science and new networks were made and strengthened. Many thanks Dee and Chiara for educating us further in the ways of single molecule imaging and interpretation! Any PhD students or postdocs interested in visiting Birmingham or Nottingham to give a Team Science seminar and visit COMPARE labs should contact the Team Science committee. (Team Science)