BioRTC is excited to launch a one week workshop on confocal microscopy that will strongly focus on hands-on experiments and imaging. Activities will be held Monday to Saturday from 9 AM to 6 PM. BioRTC aims to facilitate the research and training of African scientists using state-of-the-art laboratory infrastructure that will enable them to contribute to solving local and global biomedical science problems. The Centre has secured support from Wellcome Trust, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Francis Crick Institute, the University of Sussex, and TReND in Africa.

We will offer 5-10 positions for students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers from Nigerian Universities who work in any field of study provided they plan to do fluoresecense microscopy and aim to use the equipment available in BioRTC for their research after the workshop. The students will have free access to the equipment at BioRTC. However, we expect the students to cover the cost of consumables that are required for their research after this workshop through their institutional research grants or other local grants. We encourage applicants to look up the principal investigators of BioRTC about ongoing projects in case they may be of interest beyond the workshop.

The application is divided into two parts: a questionnaire and an interview. We will only accept students that are already planning to consuct immunofluorescense microscopy. For students, the support of their supervisor an additional requirement. Selected students will have their transportation, accommodations and feeding covered for the entire workshop.The applicants must justify in their application how they will remain in BioRTC to undertake aspects of their ongoing research after the workshop. If you have already performed other immunohistological techniques with your current samples, you may wish to emphasise on this in your application.

Workshop Overview:The workshop will cover the following areas:Basics of microscopyImmunostaining: theories and good practicesPractical on Confocal imaging with Zeiss LSM 700Image analysis with ImageJ

Logistics

Accommodation: Workshop participants will have the cost of shared hotel accommodation and meals covered during the workshop duration from 15th to 21st of January 2023. For the research period after the workshop, they will have to fund accommodation and meals by themselves.

Transportation: The workshop will cover participants’ travel expenses to Yobe State and the daily shuttle between BioRTC and accommodations.