13th European short course on Time-resolved Spectroscopy

PicoQuant GmbH held for the 13th time the European Short Course on “Principles and Applications of Time-resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy” in cooperation with Joseph R. Lakowicz from the Center of Fluorescence Spectroscopy and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The course took place in Berlin, Germany from November 2 to 5, 2015.

37 participants from around the world got an in-depth introduction to time-resolved spectroscopy and microscopy in the field of Life Sciences through a series of lectures and hands-on experiments. The course was complemented by a welcoming reception on the first day and a dinner on the third day, giving the attendees the opportunity for meeting the lecturers and networking in an informal atmosphere.

The course opened with a lecture on the principles of fluorescence spectroscopy by Joseph R. Lakowicz and was followed by lectures by Zygmunt “Karol” Gryczynski and Senior Scientists of PicoQuant covering topics like instrumentation for time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy, anisotropy, solvent effects, quenching, Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) and applications of fluorescence in Life and Material Sciences.

The practical hands-on sessions were led by application specialists from PicoQuant and Agilent. Each experimental station focused on a specific fluorescence method such as anisotropy, steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, and data analysis. A short demonstration of Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM) and STED super-resolution was also offered. The instruments presented included steady-state (Cary Eclipse, Agilent) and time-resolved spectrometers (FluoTime 200 and FluoTime 300, PicoQuant) as well as a time-resolved super-resolution microscope MicroTime 200 STED from PicoQuant.

Feedback from participants was markedly positive and most were very impressed by the high quality of the lectures. The other highlights were the training sessions, enabling participants to gain first hand experience on a variety of instruments, as well as meeting the lecturers at the social gatherings.