Visiting the first EMBL Imaging Centre symposium

The DANEMO Stipend for EMBL exchange (formerly known as The DANEMO Fellowship for Collaborative work), are small grants that support exchange and collaboration between researchers at Danish universities and EMBL. Funds can be used to support short term scientific visits at EMBL sites, to host EMBL researchers here in Denmark, to set up network meetings or to participate in different EMBL events. In 2022 Lisbeth Schmidt Laursen, made use of the stipend to visit the new EMBL Imaging center.

Below you can read an interview with Selma Dahmane and Lisbeth Schmidt Laursen about their experience at the opening of the Imaging center. The EMBL Imaging center is updated with the newest Imaging technology such as electronand light microscopy which makes it possible to directly visualise the molecular machinery of life at an unprecedented level of detail. For the launch of the Imaging center, Lisbeth Schmidt Laursen, was granted the DANEMO Stipend for EMBL exchange.

Selma Dahmane, PhD is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow working in Lars-Anders Carlson’s group at MIMS, the Swedish node of the Nordic EMBL Partnership, and the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine at Umeå University. 

Lisbeth Schmidt Laursen, PhD is the Imaging Coordinator at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBG) at Aarhus University. Dr. Schmidt Laursen received a DANEMO Fellowship to attend the event in Heidelberg. DANEMO is a research support initiative drawing scientists and students in Denmark to opportunities at EMBL and EMBO, and is currently hosted by DANDRITE, the Danish node of the Nordic EMBL Partnership, at Aarhus University. 

What was especially notable about your experience at the EMBL Imaging Centre symposium?

Selma Dahmane: It was a pleasure to attend the symposium in Heidelberg to get a glimpse of the technologies available in the new facility. I was particularly fascinated by their new “MINFLUX” system - a super star of super-resolution microscopy that enables identification of fluorescent proteins down to 4 nm resolution, the highest resolution achieved so far! 

Lisbeth Schmidt Laursen: This opening symposium was a good mixture of lectures from leaders within the bioimaging field, a chance to network and most of all an excellent opportunity to actually see the new facility and to be introduced to the possibilities it offers. 

What opportunities do you see the EMBL Imaging Centre providing for Nordic researchers?

Selma Dahmane: I think there will be plenty of opportunities for Umeå’s cryo-EM and fluorescence imaging facilities to collaborate and synergise with the EMBL Imaging Centre. More facilities means more scientists will have the opportunity to think about ideas of how to use them for future discoveries. To quote Richard Henderson, Nobel prize winner for Chemistry in 2017, who said at the symposium: “it is good to achieve the highest resolution in imaging, but it’s even better if this technology is affordable and accessible to everyone”.

Lisbeth Schmidt Laursen: We are in the setup phase of a bioimaging facility here at MBG, at Aarhus University, so we look forward to being able to take advantage of the highly specialized equipment and expertise offered through the EMBL Imaging Centre. This possibility will help us to address very specific imaging questions that we do not have the ability to address with the current equipment in our department. 

The DANEMO Stipend is for EMBL exchange is a stipend which encourages collaboration between Danish affiliated researchers and EMBL. The stipend can be used to enhance your network, either by inviting EMBL speakers to come to your lab, or by visiting EMBL labs and facilities yourself. The stipend can be used to cover travel and accommodation costs associated with these activities. Applications for the stipend are accepted continuously and we encourage all Danish researchers to apply.

Read more about the stipend here and application process here.