Correlated Multimodal Imaging – enabling discoveries from atoms to anatomy

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the Virtual Conference of COMULIS network 2021 in Gothenburg, Sweden. COMULIS 2021 is designed to bring experts, researchers, facility staff and exhibitors together from different imaging modalities to stimulate knowledge exchange and the formation of new collaborations. No matter where you are in your career, participating at the Conference will allow you to stay abreast of new correlated multimodal imaging technologies. Take the opportunity to challenge your brain, create a new network and maintain existing relations!

The program will offer an attractive combination of lectures and poster sessions from Electron and Light microscopy, Imaging Mass Spectrometry, X-ray, MRI/PET scans to Image Processing and Analysis, with poster presenters selected for short talks. It will also provide excellent opportunities for great discussions. Importantly, a round table with industry will take place to discuss marketable solutions in Correlated Multimodal Imaging and include a session on data strategies and cross-corporate workflows to facilitate multimodal imaging.

We will place emphasis on imaging methods that are able to capture the dynamics of life, spanning the whole range from molecular resolution to imaging of whole organisms. The fast development of imaging methods across this full scale of biological organisation is revolutionising our ability to visualise the inner workings of protein complexes, organelles, cells, tissues, organs and whole organisms. We hope that you will be able to join us in Gothenburg for what is certain to be a very exciting and educational meeting. On behalf of the entire organization committee, we are looking forward to virtually host you in Gothenburg!

Julia Fernandez-Rodriguez
Centre for Cellular Imaging, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Chair of the COMULIS 2021 conference

The IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) is the premier forum for the presentation of technological advances in theoretical and applied biomedical imaging. ISBI 2021 will be the 18th meeting in this series. The previous meetings have played a leading role in facilitating interaction between researchers in computer science, medical, and biological imaging. The 2021 meeting will continue this tradition of fostering cross-fertilization among different imaging communities and contributing to an integrative approach to biomedical imaging across all scales of observation. We aim to keep a workshop at the conference on the topic of reliable multimodal/correlative processing and analysis, which are of primary interest for WG4. A number of invited and contributed presentations targeting the topics of WG4 and within the general scope of COMULIS will provide valuable input regarding state-of-the-art methods to be incorporated in the WG4 benchmarking efforts. The current status of WG4 activities such as software and algorithm repository, structured and automated evaluation, ontology, etc., will be shared. The workshop will also provide an excellent opportunity to attract new members to WG4 and COMULIS.

The 5th joint workshop and symposium on Correlative Microscopy and volume EM is hosted by Electron Microscopy Science Technology Platform at the Francis Crick Institute and ZEISS Microscopy. The whole meeting is centered on scientific sessions covering a broad range of correlative workflows, encompassing sample preparation, volume imaging, data management, visualization and analysis. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to join instrument workshops and round table discussions and can learn more about special topics at talk tables supported by CLEM experts from ZEISS. Andreas Walter will chair the session “Many Roads to Correlation”, and as a speaker within that session, will give a presentation about Austrian BioImaging and discuss how correlative microscopy is moving forward and how the technique can be improved and grown. This will be a great opportunity to disseminate the action (both in a biological and preclinical framework and academic and industrial).

COMULIS 2021 is designed to bring experts, researchers, facility staff and exhibitors together from different imaging modalities to stimulate knowledge exchange and the formation of new collaborations. No matter where you are in your career, participating at this conference will allow you to stay abreast of new correlative multimodal imaging methods, learn new techniques, and most importantly, network with colleagues and make new connections.

The program will offer an attractive combination of lectures and poster sessions from electron and light microscopy, X-ray, MRI/PET scans to image analysis, with poster presenters selected for short talks. It will also provide excellent opportunities for discussions and informal gatherings. Take the opportunity to challenge your brain, create a new network, and maintain existing relations! We will place emphasis on correlative imaging methods that are able to capture the dynamics of life, spanning the whole range from molecular resolution to imaging the whole organisms. The fast development of imaging methods across scale of biological organization is revolutionizing our ability to visualize protein complexes, organelles, cell, tissues, organs and whole organism. We hope that you will be able to join us in Gothenburg for what is certain to be a very exciting and educational meeting.

(1) We will kick-off this meeting with a scientiifc session that is listed in the WMIC program (inlcuding logos). This represents a huge opportunity to recruiting additional experts from preclinical imaging and physicians to the network, specifically to WG2 which is notorously less attended. The session will showcase diverse biomedical studies that were tackled by CMI and present current solutions to the main challenges of the field for its routine use in biomedical research. This includes sample handling and preparation procedures that are compatible across modalities without compromising data quality, soft- and hardware solutions to relocate the same region of interest after transfer between imaging platforms, and automated software solutions to correlate complex, multiscale, multimodal and volumetric image data including reconstruction, segmentation and visualization. The aim is to highlight opportunities in correlated multimodality imaging and work towards bridging biological and (pre)clinical imaging by highlighting the biomedical benefits of multimodality pipelines for selected showcase studies. (2) The day after the COMULIS Project Session, WG2 meetings will take place, and will particular discuss bridging the gap between biological and bioimedical imaging, finalizing the agenda for the upcoming training school and how CMI could bring new benefits to preclinical imaging. This WG2 meeting will allow us to recruit additional and renowned members from preclinical imaging and define with them gold standards and bottlenecks.