
ACMM29
1st - 4th February 2027

Symposium Descriptions

Biological/Life Sciences Symposia

Cross-Cutting Sciences Symposia

Physical/Analytical Sciences Symposia
Biological/Life Sciences Symposia
BL1 - Expansion, Super-Resolution & Single Molecule Microscopy
This session explores advanced imaging approaches that overcome the diffraction limit to reveal biological structure and molecular organization with nanometer-scale precision. Topics will include expansion microscopy, which physically enlarges biological specimens to enable nanoscale imaging with conventional microscopes, alongside super-resolution and single-molecule techniques such as PALM, STORM, MINFLUX, SIM, single-particle tracking, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, and tracking-based super-resolution methods. Speakers will highlight advances in sample preparation, specimen chemistry, labeling and probe development, and protocols that preserve ultrastructure and molecular information while enabling quantitative analysis. Applications across neuroscience, cell biology, and pathology will be showcased, demonstrating how these technologies uncover molecular dynamics, interactions, and spatial organization in live and fixed cells, and how they can be integrated with multiplexed imaging approaches to provide deeper biological insight.
BL2 - Dynamic & Intravital Imaging
This session focuses on imaging biological processes in their native physiological context and across time, from molecular interactions to whole-organism dynamics. It will highlight advances in intravital microscopy that enable direct visualization of living tissues, including methods for deep-tissue imaging, motion stabilization, and extended long-term observation. Complementing these approaches, speakers will showcase live-cell and live-tissue imaging techniques for capturing dynamic biological events across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Topics will include minimizing phototoxicity, improving temporal resolution, and developing quantitative analysis methods for extracting meaningful information from time-lapse datasets. Applications in immunology, cancer biology, developmental biology, and other fields will demonstrate how dynamic and intravital imaging bridge the gap between cellular mechanisms and physiological function, providing new insights into biological processes as they unfold in space and time.
BL3 - Advances in Optical Microscopy
This session will explore the convergence of advanced imaging technologies, spatially resolved molecular profiling, and computational analysis approaches that are transforming biological discovery. Topics will include spatial omics and multiplex imaging methods, such as high-plex fluorescence imaging, in situ sequencing, and spatial proteomics, which enable comprehensive characterization of cells and tissues while preserving their native spatial organization. Speakers will discuss experimental design considerations, imaging platforms, and strategies for integrating multimodal datasets to uncover complex biological relationships within heterogeneous samples. The session will also highlight emerging and hybrid microscopy technologies, including smart and adaptive imaging systems, automation-driven workflows, and non-fluorescence-based approaches such as phase, label-free, and spectroscopic imaging. These innovations expand the range of observable biological phenomena, improve imaging efficiency, and provide complementary information to established fluorescence-based methods. Recognizing that modern imaging experiments generate increasingly large and complex datasets, presentations will address computational approaches for image segmentation, tracking, quantification, visualization, and data interpretation. Topics will include machine learning, artificial intelligence, reproducible analysis workflows, and best practices for managing and extracting knowledge from high-dimensional imaging data. Together, these advances demonstrate how the integration of novel imaging modalities, spatial molecular measurements, and powerful analytical tools is enabling deeper, more quantitative insights into biological systems across scales.
BL4 - Single Particle Analysis - Advances in Structural Biology
This session will feature the application of Cryo-EM to understanding the structures of proteins. Speakers will present novel processing approaches, experimental strategies, and applications, highlighting breadth of proteins structures that can be studied using cryo-EM.
BL5 - Life Science Electron Microscopy Sample Preparation – Past, Present and Future
This session explores the evolution of EM sample preparation, highlighting what can be learned from past experience rather than reinventing the wheel as knowledge is lost over time. From classical chemical fixation and staining to modern cryo-based and correlative workflows. Presentations will examine current best practices, limitations, and future directions driven by automation, improved preservation, and multimodal imaging.
BL6 - Cryo-Electron Tomography of Macromolecules, Cells and Tissues
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BL7 - Volume Electron Microscopy in Life Sciences
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Cross-Cutting Sciences Symposia
CC01 - Real-World & Industry Challenges (& Solutions!) in Microscopy and Microanalysis
Delivering reliable microanalytical results outside controlled laboratory environments remains a central challenge across disciplines. This symposium focuses on practical obstacles encountered in routine and high stakes microanalysis, including sample heterogeneity, measurement uncertainty, workflow robustness, data integration, and reproducibility. Contributions will explore pragmatic solutions spanning methodological adaptation, instrument and workflow design, quality assurance, and data interpretation strategies. Emphasis is placed on lessons learned from real world implementation and on approaches that improve confidence, efficiency, and decision making when microanalysis is applied to complex, imperfect, or time constrained problems.
CCO2 - Roger Wepf Memorial Symposium
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CC03 - Advances in Multi-Modal & Correlative Imaging - Life & Materials Science
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CC04 - Image Analysis, AI & Machine Learning for Light, Electron, Xray & Multi-Modal Microscopy & Microanalysis
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CC05 - Microscopy Outreach: Educating the Wider Community to Inspire the Next Generation of Microscopists
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CC06 - Frontiers & Applications of Scanning Probe Microscopy for the Life & Materials Sciences
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Physical/Analytical Sciences Symposia
PA1 - Microscopy and Microanalysis for Mineral Resource, & Circular Materials Processing
Microscopy and microanalysis underpins sustainable resource exploration and management by enabling high‑resolution and high throughput characterization of minerals, fluids, and environmental materials. This symposium highlights advances in microanalytical techniques, such as electron microscopy, microprobe analysis, and in situ isotopic and spectroscopic methods, and their applications across the resource life cycle. Case studies demonstrate how micro‑scale insights inform responsible exploration, improve resource efficiency, mitigate environmental impacts, and support circular economy practices. By integrating cutting‑edge analytics with geoscience and environmental frameworks, we explore how microanalysis plays a critical role in delivering resilient and sustainable resource solutions.
PA2 - Macro to Quantum - Advances & Applications of Focused Ion Beams
Focused ion beams are critical in the physical sciences, enabling nanoscale fabrication, characterisation, and modification of materials with exceptional precision. This theme will highlight advances in multimodal microscopy and in situ experimentation across diverse fields including geology, materials science, semiconductors, optics, nanomaterials, and quantum technologies. Topics include site-specific sample preparation, micron-scale sample preparation and testing, 3D and atom probe tomography, ion-solid interactions and defect engineering, and device prototyping. Attendees will explore emerging FIB applications and innovative approaches to current technological challenges.
PA3 - Microscopy & Microanalysis for Advanced Functional Materials
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PA4 - 4D/5D STEM, Ptychography and other Diffraction based techniques
Recent advances in detector technology, computational methods and electron optics are transforming diffraction-based microscopy and enabling new approaches for imaging and analysis of materials at unprecedented resolution. This symposium will highlight developments and applications of 4D/5D STEM, ptychography, electron diffraction based methods for materials characterisation. Topics include strain and field mapping, phase and orientation analysis, atomic-resolution imaging, low-dose and beam-sensitive materials characterisation, in-situ and time-resolved diffraction methods.
PA5 - In-situ and time-resolved microscopy and spectroscopy
Understanding dynamic processes in materials and devices requires advanced characterisation techniques capable of probing structural, chemical and functional evolution in real time and under operating conditions. This symposium will highlight developments and applications of in-situ, operando and time-resolved microscopy and spectroscopy across a broad range of materials systems. Topics include heating, cooling, electrical biasing, mechanical testing, gas and liquid cell microscopy, ultrafast and pump–probe methods, and dynamic imaging under external stimuli. Contributions covering electron, x-ray and scanning probe microscopy and spectroscopy, as well as correlative and multimodal approaches for investigating phase transformations, defect dynamics, transport phenomena, interfacial processes and nanoscale functional behaviour are encouraged.