On this interview, NewsMedical speaks with Arvonn Tully and Esther Kieserman from Yokogawa Life Science about how confocal-based high-content imaging is advancing core facility analysis and enhancing knowledge reliability.
Might you introduce yourselves and share your background, notably your work with confocal-based high-content imaging and evaluation?
Esther Kieserman (EK): I’ve labored within the microscopy {industry} all all through my profession, beginning again in my sophomore yr of faculty. I earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology specializing in confocal-based imaging, and my postdoctoral work primarily concerned widefield microscopy.
I then spent roughly three years working in a microscopy core facility, throughout which era I transitioned from being a microscope person to a microscopist. Earlier than becoming a member of Yokogawa Life Science’s group in February 2024, I might say that I had restricted direct expertise with high-content imaging.
I spent about 5 years working with conventional microscopes, adopted by 4 years centered on coaching, utility assist, and technical help. Microscopy has at all times been a continuing in my profession, and high-content imaging represents a singular, specialised department of this discipline. My background in conventional microscopy offers me a contemporary and well-rounded perspective when approaching confocal-based high-content imaging and evaluation.
Arvonn Tully (AT): I’ve been a part of Yokogawa’s Excessive Content material Evaluation group since Could 2020. Earlier than that, I spent 14 years working with 3D picture evaluation software program within the analysis microscopy discipline, collaborating intently with the Imaris and Arivis groups throughout North America. Throughout this time, I supported labs, core services, biotech, and pharmaceutical corporations, each earlier than and after gross sales, serving to them get probably the most out of their imaging instruments.
What I take pleasure in most helps researchers flip their concepts into significant 3D measurements. My background in scientific analysis has been invaluable as I’ve labored to carry high-content evaluation into 3D environments, notably in drug discovery.
I’m particularly keen about utilizing fashions like spheroids, organoids, and patient-derived tissues to create extra real looking and physiologically related research. Confocal microscopy, with its capacity to optically part by way of 3D cultures, performs a key position in exploring the habits of cells inside these complicated programs, and I’m thrilled to be a part of such progressive work.
Picture Credit score: Ellen Curtis/Shutterstock.com
Esther, out of your expertise in managing core services, what are the first challenges these services face concerning useful resource allocation, knowledge dealing with, and throughput?
EK: A major problem for core services is buying enough assets to put money into new expertise or having the foresight to maintain tempo with technological developments.
Core administrators should put money into “future-proofed” gear to make sure their services stay enticing to each the establishment’s researchers and the brand new researchers they’re attempting to recruit.
The funding cycle, not less than in the USA, is lengthy. Core facility managers should make selections months, if not years, upfront of putting a bit of apparatus of their facility. This may considerably pressure the core and affect its capacity to safe additional funding if the gear selection is wrong and stays unused.
Knowledge administration has persistently posed points for core services. Ten years in the past, we used exterior servers with time limitations on native knowledge storage. This problem has since intensified as knowledge manufacturing speeds have elevated and researchers generate extra knowledge per experiment.
Compounding this subject is the rising dimension of knowledge information, which demand extra pc storage. We steadily encounter conditions the place a single in a single day experiment can occupy a whole multi-terabyte arduous drive.
Throughput can be a significant concern. Researchers in core services sometimes pay hourly to make use of gear, whether or not it’s a stream cytometer, a confocal microscope, or perhaps a customary compound microscope. Prices rise if specialised help is required.
The worth additionally will increase if a researcher wants a core supervisor to conduct a stream cytometry run, picture mind slices on the confocal, or analyze a pattern by way of mass spectrometry. Researchers and {industry} specialists goal to maximise the info they receive from their investments; thus, any gear downtime may be detrimental to venture progress.
How do you see confocal-based high-content imaging addressing a few of these challenges, notably in streamlining workflows and enhancing knowledge reliability?
EK: Confocal-based high-content imaging can tackle a number of core facility challenges, particularly by way of throughput. Excessive-content imaging and evaluation alleviate pressure on extra specialised gear.
For example, quite than spending five- or six-hours setting parameters for a brand new stream cytometry experiment, a researcher can use a high-content system with adherent cells to acquire an summary of potential leads to below an hour.
As a substitute of using an costly point-scanning confocal microscope, researchers can obtain the same amount and high quality of photographs utilizing a spinning disk-based high-content system inside the similar timeframe.
In lots of circumstances, high-content evaluation programs are a direct substitute and even an enchancment over conventional strategies.
As soon as the parameters are outlined, high-content imagers persistently execute experiments with precision, guaranteeing reliability and lowering the affect of biased evaluation routines. This consistency not solely enhances the accuracy of outcomes but in addition eases the psychological burden on researchers. With much less time spent managing repetitive duties, researchers can give attention to asking progressive questions, exploring artistic concepts, and advancing their tasks.
The reliability of knowledge is a significant benefit, permitting researchers to focus on experimental design with out the added concern of whether or not the experiment will run easily. This frees up their time and vitality to give attention to different necessary duties inside the lab or facility.
Arvonn, given your experience in software program evaluation, are you able to elaborate on the position of software program in making confocal-based high-content imaging a beneficial instrument for core services?
AT: Automation developments are a game-changer for core services, making it simpler to get researchers in control and considerably boosting the reliability of analysis knowledge. Excessive-content imagers, as an illustration, enable scientists to collect significant outcomes a lot quicker than conventional microscopes ever may.
These microscopes are absolutely automated and user-friendly, working extra like plug-and-play units. Their outlined workflows not solely simplify duties but in addition reduce coaching time and cut back the chance of person errors.
In immediately’s analysis panorama, automation is important for scaling experiments. The bar for publishing papers has risen—experiments now require a lot bigger pattern sizes to verify the validity of outcomes, with ten samples not chopping it. Excessive-content confocal microscopes rise to this problem with superior spinning disk expertise.
In contrast to conventional laser point-scanning confocals, they use 1,000 mild beams concurrently to seize photographs extra shortly and with better sensitivity. This velocity and precision are very important for producing high-quality knowledge.
How does implementing confocal-based high-content imaging differ between industrial and tutorial core services? Have you ever noticed distinctive challenges or benefits?
EK: Industrial core services are sometimes among the many first to undertake high-content imaging programs, sometimes investing in gear tailor-made to particular tasks and working it repeatedly for these functions. For industrial customers, repeatability and minimal downtime are essential, as experiments usually run 24/7. In these settings, ease of use turns into a significant benefit, particularly since troubleshooting throughout off-hours may be difficult. These programs must carry out reliably each time they’re used.
In distinction, tutorial core services are likely to prioritize versatility, searching for gear that’s each user-friendly and adaptable to quite a lot of functions. For example, a confocal high-content system can simply be adjusted to deal with duties as diversified as scanning 3D dwell cells and imaging mind tissue slices.
Do you discover that knowledge evaluation necessities differ between industrial and tutorial settings?
AT: Evaluation in industrial settings typically follows one among two approaches: focused or complete.
Focused teams use well-characterized assays that tackle particular questions on cell populations. The opposite method includes measuring all the pieces and utilizing deep studying instruments to determine distinct phenotypes and results in secondary knowledge evaluation.
As core services evolve, how does high-content imaging combine with different core applied sciences like stream cytometry or genomics? Do you foresee a pattern towards a multimodal method?
EK: Excessive-content imaging is more and more being adopted in non-traditional imaging cores, particularly stream cytometry.
Techniques just like the CQ1, which may save knowledge in FCS format, supply researchers the pliability to work with numerous dyes and acquire substantial knowledge from photographs. Whereas it doesn’t absolutely substitute an 18- or 20-dye stream cytometer panel, it supplies a beneficial place to begin for complete stream cytometry experiments.
Picture Credit score: Yokogawa
One main benefit of high-content imaging is its capacity to streamline less complicated stream experiments. Researchers can skip steps like eradicating cells from plates or transferring them into stream options or equipment. As a substitute, they will go straight from incubation to knowledge assortment, preserving time-based knowledge that’s usually misplaced in conventional stream cytometry processes.
Confocal high-content imaging and stream cytometry are on monitor to change into industry-standard multimodal applied sciences. There may be additionally rising curiosity in combining confocal imaging with mass spectrometry cores. This integration provides a singular capacity to merge spatial and temporal knowledge from imaging with mass spectrometry evaluation, delivering deeper insights into cell-to-cell heterogeneity—essential for advancing illness analysis and therapy methods.
Might you share some insights on managing high-volume picture knowledge? What practices do you advocate for core services to streamline knowledge storage, evaluation, and accessibility?
AT: Efficient knowledge storage insurance policies are essential for core services, guaranteeing clear pointers on retention intervals and backup choices to handle person errors. Whereas storage wants differ, many publications require uncooked knowledge to be saved for as much as seven years. Collaborating with customers to develop storage and sharing options is vital, with instruments like Omero usually used to handle metadata and evaluation outcomes.
Cloud storage is an alternative choice, although it may be prohibitively costly for particular person labs. Some forward-thinking labs are adopting multi-petabyte storage options inside a single on-site rack. This setup helps inner entry whereas aligning with FAIR requirements, offering a path for broader knowledge sharing with the analysis group.
Knowledge evaluation instruments additionally contain trade-offs. Open-source choices are cost-effective and customizable however might require extra coaching and assist, making their general value corresponding to industrial software program, which supplies extra complete assist. Amenities should weigh these elements to pick the perfect instruments for his or her wants.
How can confocal-based high-content imaging and superior analytics enhance the general expertise for researchers and technicians inside core services?
AT: Excessive-content imaging programs streamline workflows, optimizing them to handle particular assay questions at scale. Options like computerized batch processing and integration with scheduling software program allow researchers to run large-scale experiments with minimal time spent on the microscope. Automated knowledge switch and compatibility with third-party evaluation instruments additional enhance effectivity, permitting researchers to give attention to insights quite than logistics.
Wanting ahead, what enhancements would you wish to see in high-content imaging expertise and evaluation software program to boost the capabilities of core services?
EK: From my expertise in microscopy, flexibility, upgradability, and futureproofing are essential for core services. Managers need assurance that their funding will stay purposeful and enticing for not less than 5 years.
Excessive-content programs ought to change into extra upgradeable with out sacrificing their ease of use. Improvements like these will assist core services supply higher companies, enhance knowledge high quality, and assist cutting-edge analysis throughout numerous disciplines.
AT: The subsequent main step is an elevated give attention to 3D spatial biology. Analysis has proven that 3D mobile biology differs considerably from 2D monolayers. The analysis group has probably reached the restrict of 2D research, and it’s time to discover 3D interactions of cells in physiologically related environments.
Some questions can solely be addressed by way of 3D dwell cell fashions and glued tissue, which may revolutionize pharmacology and personalised cell therapies. It truly is an thrilling time for the sector.
About Arvonn Tully
Arvonn Tully is a 3D picture evaluation skilled with over 15 years of expertise growing progressive options for complicated organic challenges. In specific he’s enthusiastic about sub mobile monitoring, neuronal reconstruction, and discovering options for complicated evaluation issues. Previous to Yokogawa, Arvonn labored at different picture evaluation corporations specializing in 3d visualization and evaluation of enormous multi-dimensional photographs. He educated hundreds of customers in 3d Picture evaluation and developed quite a few novel 3d evaluation options. Particularly he developed a bouton finder, and a novel resolution to figuring out and monitoring the contact space in 3d between touching endosomes. He began his profession in organic analysis at Dr. Levitan’s Lab in College of Pittsburgh Medical Faculty. There he used a number of imaging strategies to review the biophysics of enormous dense core vesicle mobility utilizing D. melanogaster neuromuscular junctions. Initially from Virginia, he grew up within the mountains and taking part in within the halls of Virginia Tech.
About Esther Kieserman
Dr. Esther Kieserman is a talented microscopist with over 20 years of expertise specializing in confocal-based imaging and growth of progressive microscopy strategies. She earned her undergraduate diploma at Carnegie Mellon College and went on to earn a Ph.D. in molecular biology within the lab of Dr. John Wallingford at UT Austin. Esther accomplished her postdoctoral analysis within the lab of Dr. Rebecca Heald at UC Berkeley. Earlier than becoming a member of Yokogawa Life Science in February 2024 as Head of third Get together Collaborations and Advertising and marketing Supervisor, Esther spent a number of years at Johns Hopkins College’s microscopy core facility and 9 years at Nikon Devices, the place she labored on gross sales, coaching, utility assist, and technical help. Initially from upstate New York, Esther is an avid animal lover and enjoys caring for her rabbits. With a wealthy background spanning analysis, technical assist, and industrial functions, she brings a well-rounded and complete perspective to the sector of high-content microscopy.
About Yokogawa Life Science
Now we have 30 years of expertise on this life science discipline and can reply to buyer’s downside fixing with cutting-edge options.
Our confocal scanner unit CSU collection permits 3D remark of the cells intimately and dynamics of organelles inside cells. For the reason that CSU collection is able to high-speed capturing, it is usually appropriate for observing high-speed life phenomena. As well as, the CSU collection is a multi-point confocal methodology which is extraordinarily light to cells, finest appropriate for long-term dwell cell remark.