‘I am not a microscopist’ is a phrase that we hear from many biologists who use microscopy in their research but who do not consider themselves to be experts. This mindset has contributed to a disconnect between those developing new methods for imaging and image analysis and the ‘end-users’ (aka biologists) who could benefit from the latest methods to answer their biological questions. Bringing together all stakeholders in the imaging community was our main aim when we set up our online microscopy community site, FocalPlane (https://focalplane.biologists.com/). Since its launch in 2020, the site has grown with regards to its user base and the types of content hosted on the site. This year, we've been continuing to work on how we can best serve the imaging community as a whole.
FocalPlane aspires to be an informal setting where you can hear about the latest advances in imaging technology, alongside pioneering life science research that uses microscopy. On the site, you can find a host of useful resources (see figure), such as ‘How to’ posts for various bioimage analysis tools, updates on the latest probes, and fortnightly preprint lists. We hope this means that you can stay up to date without having to scroll through all the specialist journals where these advances are published. Although we are excited to host high-quality content on FocalPlane, we also see ourselves place to signpost the fantastic resources that already exist within the imaging community. With this in mind, we are delighted to announce that the MicroList resource database is now live on FocalPlane. MicroList was first created by Jennifer Waters and Talley Lambert at Harvard Medical School, USA, where they collated resources created by the imaging community. These resources are divided into community resources, educational resources and tools. The database is fully searchable via our search bar, or you can use our filtering system to identify the resources that you are looking for. We invite our users to continue adding their resources to the database and we also welcome recommendations for resources that you find useful in your research as we aim to keep the database up to date.
FocalPlane is also about community. In 2021, we added the FocalPlane Network to the site in an attempt to foster interactions within the community. The Network, which now contains over 400 members, is a database of researchers with expertise in microscopy and can be used to search for collaborators, reviewers, speakers and panellists. In addition to criteria such as location, scientific field and area of expertise, the database is also searchable by aspects of diversity (such as gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+ status and disability status), which members can choose to add. We invite members of the imaging community to add themselves into the Network, which is open to researchers from all career stages and geographical locations. We also have an interview category where we highlight microscopists from all career stages across the community, including our very popular Latin American Microscopist series. In addition, we've been highlighting core facilities from around the globe in our ‘Imaging with…’ series; we'd love to have recommendations for this series so please get in touch if you'd like your core facility to be featured.
Last year, we teamed up with MicropscopyDB to upgrade our events calendar and jobs board, providing a one-stop shop for anyone looking for microscopy-based conferences, courses or positions within the community. It's free and easy to post your microscopy-related jobs and events on MicroscopyDB – the listing will then appear on FocalPlane as well as on the other partner sites across the world.
Given that FocalPlane is hosted by Journal of Cell Science (JCS), we also wanted to look at different ways that we can better support the cell biology community alongside the imaging community. One way we have done this is to introduce a cell biology jobs board to run alongside our microscopy-specific jobs board. The jobs on our cell biology board do not have to have a microscopy component to them, so whether you're looking for a PhD programme, a post-doc position or a tenure-track position in the field of cell biology – or if you're looking to hire someone in one of these positions – please do check it out! In parallel, we have also added a cell biology events calendar to the site, so that you can find meetings, courses and conferences in the field, or tell the community about your upcoming event. Again, it's easy and free to post a cell biology job or event – you just need to register with FocalPlane, and if you run into any problems, we'll be available to help. Finally, we recognise the importance of microscopy training for cell biologists so, earlier this year, we launched our JCS–FocalPlane Training Grant programme (https://www.biologists.com/grants/jcs-focalplane-training-grants/). These grants are aimed at early-career researchers, working in an area covered by JCS, who would like to attend a microscopy training course. JCS, together with its not-for profit publisher, The Company of Biologists, has been providing funding for the community for years (in the form of Travelling Fellowships, Meeting Grants and meeting sponsorships) so we are delighted to be able to extend this support to the imaging community.
In line with our aim of bringing the imaging and cell biology communities together, we also recently hosted webinars that were targeted to cell biologists and life scientists more broadly. These webinars, which were part of our ‘FocalPlane features…’ webinar series, focused on topics such as data management and reproducibility. If you missed the webinars, you can view the recordings, some useful links and additional Q&As on the site. If you have ideas for future webinars that you think would be useful for the community, please do send us your suggestions.
Finally, we are delighted to announce that Pablo Saez (University Medical Center Hamburg, Eppendorf, Germany) has been appointed to our Scientific Advisory Board. Pablo has a career-long involvement in both cell biology and microscopy, and we are working with him and other members of our Scientific Advisory Board to look at further developing our cell biology corner.
We hope that these upgrades to FocalPlane will prove to be useful to you – our community. If you want to get involved with FocalPlane, please check out the site and sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest news. If you have any feedback or any requests, you can contact us using our contact form or at [email protected]. We're always happy to hear from you.
