Syllabus
The course consists of five parts. 1. Light microscopy (Sádlová, Vojtková, Majer, Bečvář, Jelínková, Hammerbauerová, Vajs) Introduction to the basic theory of light microscopy and handling the light microscope. Students will prepare native and stained microscopic slides (Giemsa-Romanowski staining, aniline blue and native alizarin staining). The techniques will be demonstrated on protozoa with various taxonomic affiliation and helminths. 2. Special light and fluorescence microscopy (Sádlová, Vojtková, Majer, Bečvář, Jelínková, Hammerbauerová, Vajs) Students will be introduced into the basics of the theory of contrasts in the light microscopy (dark field, phase contrast, DIC, Hoffman contrast), fluorescence and confocal microscopy. They will practically learn the work with dark field, phase contrast and fluorescence microscope. 3. Electron microscopy (Sacherová, Juračka, Hyliš) Students will be introduced into the theory of electron microscopy and preparation of specimens. They will have chance to work practically with scanning and transmission electron microscope and prepare simple specimens. 4. Introduction to the image analysis (Albrechtová, Soukup et al.) In this section, students learn the basics of digitization and image processing and basic operations of image analysis. Practical exercises are conducted in the program ImageJ (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, URL: http://imagej.nih.gov). More on the website of Block 4. 5. Advanced fluorescence and electron microscopy - excursion to the Service Laboratory of Imaging Methods BIOCEV (Aleš Benda et al.)
Students will be introduced into assets and basic principles of advanced microscopical methods (Super-Resolution, Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM), Correlative Light Electron Microscopy) with excursion to the service laboratory and presentation of individual microscopes (STED microscope, STORM and SIM microscope, MP microscope, FLIM microscope, SEM microscope).
Annotation
“Microscopic techniques” is a course aimed to introduce students to various types of microscopy (light microscopy, fluorescence and electron microscopy) and to the practical use of these techniques on model examples (counting of microscopic objects, digital image analysis). The course consists of 5 blocks. Active participation in all five parts of the course is necessary. The credit is given after the finalization of all the protocols in paper or electronic form (part 1 and parts 2-4, respectively). Pedagogues from several departments provide teaching, and it runs in different schoolrooms during the whole semester. The itinerary and all information you can find on Moodle pro výuku 2 / Přírodovědecká fakulta / ► Sekce biologie / ► Katedra parazitologie / ► MB160C45, with the password "Mikroskop-2023", active from 13th September 2023. Your questions address to sadlovaj@natur.cuni.cz.
Looking forward to your participation,
Jovana Sadlova and colleagues