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Biomedical Imaging Research Unit

BIRU Mini-Symposium 2025

17 October 2025

The BIRU held a Mini-Symposium on Tuesday 25 November at the Grafton campus, funded through the Research Platform Use and Development Fund. There were 58 registrations for attendance. At the event, researchers were introduced to four different technologies, (STED microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, flow cytometry, light sheet fluorescence microscopy), through a series of short presentations. The programme is shown below.

The event concluded with the presentation of the awards for the 2025 BIRU annual image competition. The results of the competition can be viewed here.

Programme

Time Title Speaker
2pm -2:15pm Welcome, introduction and news Dr David Crossman, BIRU Director, Dept of Physiology
2:15pm - 2:25pm Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) Microscopy - how it works + our system Dr David Crossman, BIRU Director, Dept of Physiology
2:25pm - 2:35pm STED Microscopy - Research focus
'Adherens junctions as master regulators of vesicle trafficking		 Dr Waruni Dissanayake, Dept of Molecular Medicine and Pathology
2:35pm - 2:40pm Questions  
2:40pm - 2:50pm Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) - how it works + our system Ratish Kurian, BIRU
2:50pm - 3pm TEM - Research focus
'Organelle proximity  - why use TEM as independent confirmation?'		 Dr Victoria Hewitt, Technical Manager, BIRU
3pm - 3:05pm Questions  
3:05pm - 3:15pm Flow cytometry - how it works + our system (cell sorter) Dr Sandy Chen, BIRU
3:15pm - 3:25pm Flow cytometry - Research focus
'Using yeast display and FACS to isolate strong-binding antibody variants'.		 Patrick Wightman, University of Waikato
3:25pm - 3:30pm Questions  
3:30pm - 3:40pm Light sheet fluorescence microscopy - how it works + our system Jacqueline Ross, BIRU
3:40pm - 3:50pm Light sheet fluorescence microscopy - Research focus
'Tackling the beast of the BIRU: What Lightsheet microscopy can reveal about placental blood vessels' 		 Mary Spring, Dept of Obstetrics and Gynaecology/Auckland Bioengineering Institute
3:50pm - 3:55pm Questions  
3:55pm - 4:15pm  Refreshments - discussion/networking  
4:15pm - 4:30pm BIRU image competition - presentation of prizes  
4:30pm - 5:30pm Discussion/networking  

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