See the Hidden: Spatial Biology II

Boris Zarda trained as a Microbiologist and has over 30 years of experience in multiple fluorescence microscopy techniques. He has been with Leica Microsystems for 24 years and currently manages their Advanced Workflow Specialist team. The proximity of Boris and his team to real-life science makes them ideally placed to facilitate the development of new technologies. Boris is dedicated to optimizing imaging techniques and workflows and strongly believes in knowledge sharing to improve results.

David Pointu has been application manager for Cell DIVE and translational research at Leica Microsystems since 2021 and has broad experience in light microscopy, including various aspects of cell and tissue imaging and analysis. After studying physical chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, he completed his PhD in 2002, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institut Curie. In 2004 he moved into industry, and has worked as an application specialist in high-end microscopy at several companies, including GE Healthcare.

Falco obtained his PhD in Plant Cell Biology in the group of Professor Karin Schumacher at the Centre for Organismal Studies in Heidelberg. Falco joined Leica Microsystems in 2018 and focused on advanced widefield microscopy. Since the launch of the THUNDER widefield imaging systems in 2019, he has hosted workshops demonstrating the power of THUNDER to the scientific community. More recently, he has also excelled at training researchers remotely.

Nicolas Mouchet has been co-manager of the H2P2 histopathology platform at the University of Rennes since 2019. He completed his engineering degree in 2006, gaining experience in molecular genetics and RNA expression analysis. During his PhD and post-doctoral studies, he trained in cancer research bioinformatic analysis. In 2017, he earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science to better support the evolving cross-disciplinary nature of scientific studies.

Tom Pettini is a neurobiology Research Associate in the Zoology Department of the University of Cambridge. He is currently working in the lab of Prof. Matthias Landgraf using high-resolution imaging techniques to measure physical changes in the wiring of motor neurons within the developing brain of late Drosophila larvae. Tom’s previous postdoctoral studies included single-molecule techniques to quantify cell-to-cell variability in mRNA, and studying the transcriptional initiation of several developmental genes in whole early Drosophila embryos, at the University of Manchester. His PhD thesis focused on using multicolor fluorescent in-situ hybridization and confocal imaging to study regulatory functions of non-coding RNAs found throughout the Drosophila Hox gene complex.

Dr. Luis Alvarez studied physical chemistry at the Université Paris-Sud XI in Orsay, where he worked on molecular quantitative imaging in live cells. He concentrated on fluorescence lifetime imaging and the effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) on fluorescent proteins. In 2010, Luis moved to Dublin, where he worked on host-pathogen interactions at University College Dublin and the National Children Research Centre and studied how mucosal immunity uses ROS to respond to bacterial pathogen infections. During this time, he developed 3D infection models from ex-vivo organ cultures and organoids. In 2016, Luis moved to the University of Oxford, where he developed advanced quantitative imaging approaches to study host-pathogen interactions. This work centered on understanding HIV and EBOLA entry mechanisms into cells. Luis joined Leica Microsystems in 2019 as a product application manager for functional imaging.