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Microscopy and biology have always been intimately linked together. One of the driving forces for the development of the very earliest microscopes was our curiosity of the basis of life and our desire to understand it.

As the celebrated marine biologist and writer Rachel Carson once said, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.

Scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) are popular imaging tools across a wide range of research and industrial applications, enabling clear view at nanometre scales due to their unparalleled magnification capabilities.

Since its inception, fluorescence imaging has revolutionised biological research, providing an invaluable tool for scientists to explore and visualise cellular structures and processes at a microscopic scale.

The cytoskeleton is anchored to the nucleus (specifically, the nuclear lamina) via the versatile connectors collectively named as the LINC complex.

Imaging living cell samples is challenging due to the meniscus formed by immersing liquid at container walls.

Eukaryotic cells have a cytoskeletal structure which helps to maintain shape and organise components of the cell.

Fluorescence microscopy is an essential tool in cell biology as it allows scientists to look at what is inside of a cell and easily see the organisation of organelle by labelling different organelles selectively.

Supported by an RMS Summer Studentship award, I spent time in the lab of Professor Duncan Graham at the University of Strathclyde to study the uptake and distribution of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (Btk) inhibitors, ibrutinib, acalabrutinib and ibrutinib-yne using a combination of Raman and stimulated Raman scattering microscopy.

Sreenivas (Sreeni) Bhattiprolu is the Head of digital solutions at Zeiss, and author of the ebook “AI for Advanced Image Analysis”.

My idea for this project was to be able to control light emitted from different sources, and illuminate each subject with the desired colour.