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On Oct. 14-15, The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, hosted its inaugural Minnesota Bioimaging Symposium, which gathered experts from across the nation and world to connect, collaborate, and explore the latest developments and correlative techniques in the realm of bioimaging technology. 

State-of-the-art bioimaging equipment allows researchers to study objects like viruses, cells, proteins, and tissues more closely and dynamically than ever before. The discoveries made possible by these technologies, in turn, can lead to new treatment options and preventative measures that benefit patients. 

In 2016, the Institute installed a Titan Krios cryoEM microscope (one of the world’s most powerful microscopes), and this year, the Institute further expanded its already advanced bioimaging capabilities to include tomography with the acquisition of its The Thermo Fisher Scientific Arctis, a Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscope (FIB-SEM)—the first that will be installed at an academic institution in North America. 

“This is going to be an exciting day for many of our scientists to learn some new things about where we see the field going in the future in terms of bioimaging,” said Executive Director Robert Clarke, PhD, during his opening remarks on the Symposium’s opening day. 

Shashank Priya, Vice President for the Research and Innovation Office (RIO), University of Minnesota, also welcomed attendees and introduced some of the long-term goals of The Hormel Institute’s Minnesota Bioimaging Center (MBiC), calling the center a “one-stop shop” for researchers, thanks to its state-of-the-art technology and supercomputing capabilities that are all on-site. 

Over the course of two days, symposium speakers shared research progress made possible through bioimaging across a broad range of areas that included work on 

chronic-wasting-disease-causing prions, locating elusive virus proteins, and better understanding cancer metastasis—as well as bioimaging tools and resources available across University of Minnesota campuses. 

Researchers were also able to present their work during a poster session and attend a technical workshop led by Thermo Fisher to better understand tomography (cryoET) techniques.

Keynote speakers included Dr. Peijun Zhang, Professor and Founding Director of eBIK (the UK National Electron Bio-imaging Centre), University of Oxford, and Dr. Hong Zhou, Professor and Founding Director of EICN (Electron Imaging Center for NanoMachines), University of California, Los Angeles.