Interdisciplinary
interactions are essential for driving the innovation pipeline in biological
imaging, yet collegial workspaces where they can spring up and mature are
lacking in the United States. Last fall, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL)
convened a National Science Foundation workshop to identify the bottlenecks
that stymie innovation in microscopy and imaging, and recommend approaches for
transforming how imaging technologies are developed and deployed. The
conclusions of the 79 workshop participants are summarized in a Commentary in
the August issue of Nature Methods.
"Creating
spaces for co-locating microscopists, computational scientists and biologists,
in our experience, is a key and missing ingredient in new and necessary
ecosystems of innovation. Sometimes the seeds of innovation have to be planted
in the same pot for them to flower and be fruitful," Colón-Ramos says.
For
the proposed centers to optimally succeed, they need expert staff scientists
who engage in and catalyze collaborations among the major players in the
imaging ecosystem, the group concluded. The centers will provide space and
expertise not only for teaching existing, high-end imaging techniques, but also
for designing and testing new technologies with real-world biological
applications and disseminating them promptly to staff and visiting scientists,
faculty and students. All can participate in an iterative innovation process,
driving discovery while becoming interdisciplinary thinkers and project
developers themselves.
As a
next step in transforming the vision of national imaging centers into a
reality, a follow-up meeting with a variety of funding stakeholders will be
scheduled in the spring of 2020.
Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology
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