Liam Rooney

It has been lovely being back in Glasgow this week, giving a keynote talk at the Glasgow Computational Biology conference & an invited seminar at @uofgsii.bsky.social in the Hogwarts building 🏰(thank you @liam-rooney.bsky.social) -both such vibrant research communities & highly enjoyable discussions

Participants and organisers from the 2025 Strathclyde Optical Microscopy Course (SOMC) stood together on steps in a modern building.

🆕 | @uofgsii.bsky.social's Dr @liam-rooney.bsky.social recently co-organised the UK’s largest and most comprehensive light microscopy training programme, SOMC 2025, bringing together experts and students from around the world for an advanced upskilling course.

👉 More: www.gla.ac.uk/schools/infe...

Great first week at #SOMC25, learning microscopy basics through lectures and practicals. We spent today collecting samples on the Isle of Cumbrae ready for week 2!

We might have a spare T-shirt or two if you’re down in Glasgow anytime soon 😅

Thank you so much to all of the great students, lecturers, demonstrators, and supportive vendors/sponsors - we wouldn’t have a course without you!

And thank you to fellow organisers @shannanfoylan.bsky.social, @gailmcconnell.bsky.social and Brad Amos!

After 10 packed days of optical microscopy theory & practicals, #SOMC25 is over!

🌍 24 students from around the world
🧑‍🏫 19 internationally renowned lecturers
🧑‍🔧 16 supportive sponsors
🔬 14 hands-on advanced practical sessions
🏆 4 poster & image prizes
🪼 1 field trip to collect marine specimens

Grateful for the chance to speak on computational microscopy and ML/AI in imaging. Thanks for having me! #SOMC25 #Microscopy #AI

Our final session at #SOMC25 was a practical workshop on 3D printed lenses - learning how to rapidly fabricate small lenses and spin coat large lenses for optical instrumentation.

Our final lecture on Day 10 of #SOMC25 is on computational microscopy and ML/AI imaging/analysis approaches, delivered by @giudica.bsky.social (@strathbiomedeng.bsky.social).

Our penultimate lecture on the final day of #SOMC25 is on developments and applications of Mesoscale Imaging from @gailmcconnell.bsky.social (@sipbs.bsky.social @unistrathclyde.bsky.social).

Our morning lecture at Day 9 of #SOMC25 is a double act on Raman imaging delivered by @karenfaulds.bsky.social and Will Tipping from @unistrathclyde.bsky.social.

Our second lecture on Day 8 of #SOMC25 was given by Joëlle Goulding (@uniofnottingham.bsky.social) on the theory and practicalities of Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy.

Our first lecture of Day 8 at #SOMC25 is on FLIM and FRET imaging, from uses in basic science through to clinical diagnostics, delivered by Simon Poland (@kingscollegelondon.bsky.social).

Day 7 Lecture 2 at #SOMC25 on Expansion Microscopy delivered by @shannanfoylan.bsky.social (@unistrathclyde.bsky.social), featuring some of her own @sulsa.bsky.social funded research on expansion microscopy for ‘footery’ samples.

#SOMC25 Day 7 kicks off with @ralfmbauer.bsky.social (@unistrathclyde.bsky.social) giving a lecture on lightsheet microscopy.

Our Day 6 #SOMC25 afternoon lecture on single-molecule localisation microscopy was delivered by Susan Cox (@kingscollegelondon.bsky.social), followed by rotations around some advanced practicals.

After our morning practical session at #SOMC25, we have our first lecture of the day delivered by @superresolusian.bsky.social (@kingscollegelondon.bsky.social) on STED and super-resolution microscopy methods.

They got really cool and diverse stuff to image - a full 5 days of advanced system practicals next week, from lightsheet to single-molecule. ✨

Plus an image competition from the data generate from the specimens collected.

Students seem to be enjoying it and, importantly, no one fell in the sea! 😅

Field trip day at #SOMC25 - we took a trip to the Isle of Cumbrae to collect specimens to image for the rest of the course.

Tide pooling, beach combing, diatom netting, copepod fishing, crustacean hunting, and jelly junking. 🌊🪼🦀

Our final activity of #SOMC25 Day 4 is an image analysis lecture and workshop led by @beatricebo.bsky.social from the Cancer Research Scotland Institute.

Our second lecture of Day 4 at #SOMC25 was delivered by me (@uofgsii.bsky.social) covering aspects of live cell and in vivo microscopy.

Saturday morning and Day 4 of #SOMC25 starts with @lemgruber.bsky.social (@uofgmvls.bsky.social @uofgsii.bsky.social) telling us about the most widely used light microscopy methods; widefield epifluorescence and confocal laser scanning microscopy.

Day 3 of #SOMC25 is rounding off with our evening lecture from Bob Edkins (@unistrathclyde.bsky.social) on Fluorescence and Fluorescent Proteins. 🌟🔬

#SOMC25 Day 3 practical session of phase and DIC methods kicks off with a demonstration from Brad Amos before the students will spend time aligning systems for phase contrast and DIC, then imaging various aquatic and marine specimens.

Next up at #SOMC25 is our second lecture of the day from @gailmcconnell.bsky.social (@unistrathclyde.bsky.social) on light source for optical microscopy. 💡🔬

#SOMC25 Day 3 kicks off with our morning lecture from Klaus Suhling (@kingscollegelondon.bsky.social) discussing detectors for optical imaging. 📷🔬

Rounding off the day with Lecture 3 of #SOMC25 with Polarisation, Interference and Diffraction delivered by @muellenbroich.bsky.social, featuring sunglasses-adorned Brewster and a young(er) @ralfmbauer.bsky.social.

Day 1 #SOMC25 practical sessions demonstrating Abbe’s famous experiments followed by hands on alignment and Köhler illumination exercises using a variety of transillumination setups.

Day 2 Lecture 2 of #SOMC25 delivered by David McKee (@physicsstrath.bsky.social) on Ray and Wave Optics. 🌈🔬

Agreed - enough to know what to use, when and why, but without the need to derive the confocal parameter on a napkin at the coffee break. 😅