The Microscopists

#44 — Gail McConnell , Professor of Biophotonics at the University of Strathclyde chats to Peter O'Toole about her groundbreaking work developing new imaging techniques on the Mesolens, discusses her career highlights, and remembers the time she once got into trouble at an international conference. We'll discuss creating good work-life balance, and how the first ever female professor of physics at...

#43 — Elizabeth Villa , a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at UC San Diego talks to Peter O'Toole about the benefits of collaborative projects, the advantages and disadvantages of new microscopy techniques, and establishing fun lab traditions. We'll chat about her early career as a Fulbright Scholar, her movement into biology to work with microscopy rock stars in the US and Europe, and...

#42 — Claire Brown , Associate Professor & Director of the Advanced BioImaging Facility at McGill University , talks to Peter O'Toole about the importance of taking care of your staff, how she successfully set up a lab as a single mom and why simpler techniques are often the better choice. We'll also discover why she got involved with Global BioImaging , her struggles being at the interface of...

#41 — Ralf Jungmann , Professor and group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and LMU Munich joins Peter O'Toole in this episode of The Microscopists to discuss the most frightening time in his career, how moving back to Germany from the US was the biggest culture shock and why writing grants is so important. Ralf also shares how 80s TV influenced his career, his obsession with the...

#40 — Brad Amos , Emeritus Scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology , joins Peter O’Toole in this episode of The Microscopists to discuss his varied career, from zoologist to confocal microscope designer to amateur artist. We’ll discover how Brad developed the confocal microscope taken up by Bio-Rad , as well as the Mesolens microscope, which he is using in his work as Visiting Profess...

#39 — Ever wondered just what it’s like working at the HHMI Janelia Research Campus ? Teng-Leong Chew , Director of the Advanced Imaging Center at Janelia , joins Peter O’Toole for episode #39 of The Microscopists to let us know. We’ll also discover what it was like moving from Malaysia to Wisconsin during a blizzard-enforced University of Wisconsin shutdown, and hear more about street art and une...

#38 — W. E. Moerner of Stanford University is a pioneer in the field of super-resolution imaging for cell biology. Tune in as W. E. joins Peter O’Toole and discover more about the work that led to W. E. sharing the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. We’ll hear why interdisciplinarity is so important in science, why W. E. has had to overcome his tendency to procrastinate, and how a love for Gilbert and...

#37 — Peter O’Toole ’s guest for episode #37 of The Microscopists is Holly L. Aaron , Director of the CRL Molecular Imaging Center at the University of California Berkeley . Tune in to this candid episode and discover more about Holly’s aversion to grant writing, her plans for her self-built dream home on Hawaii, and why there’s nothing quite like the sight of lava flowing into the ocean. We’ll to...

#36 — Today's guest on The Microscopists is Nobel Laureate Sir Paul Nurse , Chief Executive and Director of The Francis Crick Institute in London. Paul's early career used microscopic screening to identify temperature-sensitive cell-cycle mutants in fission yeast. This work led to the identification of the cell division cycle 2 gene (cdc2), which encodes a kinase critical for cell cycle progressio...

#35 — You’re in for a treat in this episode of The Microscopists as we’re joined by Sir Jeremy Farrar , Director of Wellcome . We learn more about Jeremy’s work as an infectious diseases specialist, his rugby- and cricket-playing pedigree, being a member of SAGE during COVID, and unusual wallpapers. In this inspiring episode, Jeremy also reveals his ideal dinner party guests, how to cope with impo...

#34 — Michelle S. Itano is the Director of the Neuroscience Center Microscopy Core at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill . In this episode of The Microscopists, cellular biophysicist Michelle tells us about her role as Editor-in-Chief of Biotechniques , the importance of improving staff retention in core facilities, and how being a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Imaging Scientist has proved...

#33 — Mark Ellisman , Director of the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research ( NCMIR ) at UCSD , is a leader in the development of 3D light and electron microscopy and its applications for studying cells of the brain and nervous system. In this episode of The Microscopists, we learn more about Mark’s early passion for taking things apart and putting them together again, what it was li...

#32 — Today’s guest on The Microscopists is none other than Martin Chalfie of Columbia University . In this inspiring episode, we discover more about the work on the discovery and development of GFP that led to Martin sharing the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. We’ll also hear about some of the early challenges that Martin faced in his career, why he temporarily gave up on science, his various jobs...

#31 — Joerg Bewersdorf is a leader in developing fluorescence microscopy techniques for biomedical research, such as Pan-Expansion microscopy. In today’s entertaining episode of The Microscopists, we chat to Joerg about his early dreams of space, training as a physicist, straight talking, the (very important) hierarchy of deserts, and making a microscope out of gingerbread (it even had a lens!). T...

#30 — Prisca Liberali of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) is a pioneer in the field of cellular self-organization and collective behaviors during developmental and regenerative processes. In today’s energetic and inspiring episode of The Microscopists, Peter O’Toole learns more about Prisca’s training as a chemist, her research into organoids, her inner drive, and why...

#29 — On this week’s episode of The Microscopists, we chat to Jan Ellenberg , Head of Cell Biology & Biophysics Unit at EMBL , Heidelberg. Jan’s current pioneering work focuses on cell division and nuclear organization, and we learn more about this, as well as how Jan got to grips with the political aspects of his role. We’ll discover more about the role of EMBL in kickstarting scientists’ car...

#28 — Markus Sauer of the University of Würzburg is a super-resolution microscopist and one of the pioneers behind dSTORM (direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy). In the latest episode of The Microscopists, Markus joins Peter O’Toole to discuss his career path, from imaging combustion to imaging single molecules. As we get to know Markus better, we discover more about combining semin...

#27 — Judith Klumperman of the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht is one of the leaders in the field of electron microscopy and her work has contributed hugely to our understanding of diseases of the endo-lysosomal system. In this episode of The Microscopists, Judith chats to Peter O’Toole about the importance of scientific collaboration, why a sustainable financing system is essential to ens...

#26 — You may know Elizabeth M. C. Hillman ( Columbia University ) as the pioneer behind SCAPE microscopy , but in episode #26 of The Microscopists, we’ll learn more about her early inspirations, how she positions herself between the fields of physics, engineering, and medicine, and how it was while in hospital with a gymnastics injury that she decided what she wanted to do. As we touch on diversi...

#25 — Harald Hess is a pioneer in the fields of high-throughput electron microscopy and super-resolution 3D microscopy, and today we’ll discover more about what inspired him, his move from academia to industry and back again, and who comes off best in his tennis matches with Eric Betzig . We’ll hear how Harald and Eric built the first super-resolution microscope for PALM microscopy in Harald’s fro...

#24 — In this episode of The Microscopists, we’re joined by astronomer Professor Chris Lintott of the University of Oxford , co-founder of The Zooniverse citizen science platform, and a presenter on the BBC’s The Sky at Night programme. In this wide-ranging and enlightening chat, we discuss early inspirations, the importance of public engagement in science, the wacky rules and regulations of real...

#23 — In this episode of The Microscopists, we have a double-header for you as we’re joined by Mark Bray of Novartis and Pearl Ryder of the Carpenter Lab at the Broad Institute . Mark and Pearl share their career histories, from high school to med school to the lab. We take in their career highlights—including Pearl’s founding of the Future PI Slack peer mentoring group—as well as their thoughts o...

#22 — In this episode of The Microscopists, we’re joined by molecular biologist, biophysicist and Nobel Laureate Richard Henderson from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology . We’ll discuss some of his earlier career challenges in biophysics and what attracted him to biology, his pioneering work in the field of electron microscopy, his favorite comic books, and passion for electronics. Watch or...

#21 — In this episode of The Microscopists, we’re joined by Stephani Otte , Imaging Program Officer for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative . We’ll discuss her move from neuroscience to managing the funding of imaging projects worth millions of dollars, and why she’s always loved a challenge. We’ll hear more about the aim of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the...

#20 — In this episode of The Microscopists, we’re joined by Yannick Schwab of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory ( EMBL ) Heidelberg, who is one of the pioneers of correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM). We’ll discuss why Yannick considers himself such a lucky scientist and the role that serendipity has played in his career. We’ll also learn more about who has inspired Yannick in...