46-th Young Scientists Counsil seminar: Tim Hucho "High Content Microscopy for the cellular study of pain" and Joris Messens "Balancing sulfur oxygen signaling to survive stress"

High Content Microscopy for the cellular study of pain

What is the benefit of an automatized low-resolution microscopy such as High Content Screening microscopy in the realm of novel approaches such as supra resolution microscopy or single cell –omics? We liked to argue, that the increased sensitivity of high-resolution techniques necessarily falls short of showing the relevance of the observed events as they can only observe very few events. Low-resolution screening microscopes in contrast allow very robust statistics due to the large number of observed events. We will show, that this allows the detection of novel cellular regulation mechanisms of pain even in the highly heterogeneous system of primary sensory neurons.

Balancing sulfur oxygen signaling to survive stress

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) was once considered to be an unavoidable and toxic byproduct of an aerobic lifestyle. However, it is now recognized that endogenous H₂O₂ plays an important positive role as redox metabolite in cell signaling and it allows cells to rapidly respond to metabolic changes. These H₂O₂ signaling reactions need to be tightly controlled, and cells have developed elegant adaptive strategies to maintain the cellular redox state in balance to preventing damage. Focusing on structure and function of proteins, I will guide you in the world of promiscuity in thiol redox control and oxidative stress survival.

january 12, 2018