Discovery in the life-sciences increasingly relies on quantitative analysis of microscopy images. The 2020 virtual workshop “From Images to Knowledge (I2K)”, to be held from November 30 to December 2, will therefore focus on in-depth interactive tutorials covering state-of-the-art open source solutions for biological image reconstruction and analysis, as well as social interaction between developers, researchers, and students. It will be a forum to learn about and discuss forward looking strategies for dealing with the ever increasing amount of large and content rich microscopy imagery.

As all major open source platforms for bioimage analysis will be represented, this will be a great opportunity to learn how to use the best software tools for your research and how to get involved in their development! We will have an exciting number of leaders and rising stars in the field of computational image analysis participating in the workshop, both as tutors and social participants. I2K will therefore be a unique chance to get in touch with them in person.

Topics will include:

• Bioimage analysis workflows
• Computer vision and machine learning
• Handling of big image data
• Image data annotation and sharing
• Image data visualisation
• Image restoration, registration, segmentation, and tracking
• Smart microscopy
• Open software engineering

I2K is for (i) researchers and students who are generating or analysing large and/ or complex image data, (ii) scientists creating tools and methods to solve image analysis problems, and (iii) software engineers who provide and maintain the necessary infrastructure.

Neural circuits implement transfer functions that combine sensory inputs and prior experience to choose a behavioral response. Historically, the study of the most convenient animal models —from the giant axon of the squid and the lobster's stomatogastric circuits to Aplysia's synapses and C. elegans' circuits — neuroscientists revealed some of the operating principles of the nervous system, which were then found to apply broadly across phyla. The third installment of this meeting will once again bring together neuroscientists working on a broad diversity of animal models in an effort to compare circuits across phyla as a means to crack their function.

Neuropeptides comprise the largest and most diverse class of neuromodulators and regulate a diverse array of critical processes. While their importance is well-established, fundamental questions about synthesis, processing, release, transmittal, reception, and signal transduction remain unanswered. Recent tool developments and advances in experimental and genetic techniques have the potential to transform our understanding of neuropeptide function from subcellular synthesis to behavioral output. Now is an ideal time to begin redefining our understanding of how neuropeptides layer with circuitry and metabolism to govern physiological functions and behavior.

This meeting will bring together researchers studying the influence of neuropeptide signaling on physiology and behavior at both the cellular and circuit level in a range of organisms and across disciplines, including experimental and computational tool developers. Through presentations and discussions, we look forward to 1) generating new questions and hypotheses about how neuropeptides regulate behavior and how they themselves are regulated, 2) identifying questions that emerging tools could be used to address, and 3) defining new tools and strategies for probing neuropeptide function.

Sensory perceptions, behavioral decision making and performance are all strongly reliant on internal states. Understanding of the neural circuits that underlie internal states, including the autonomic and voluntary arousal networks, has greatly expanded in recent years. This meeting will gather researchers to discuss how various sensory pathways interface with the neural circuits controlling states: where in brain and body they converge, the dynamics of those interactions and the consequences for behavioral outcomes. Work in diverse species, including mouse, fruit fly and human, will be covered.

For many years, our understanding of early mammalian development has been limited by the inability to visualize development as it happens. Technical limitations, physical inaccessibility, and complex computational problems have all hindered our ability to answer long-standing questions in the field of mouse development. Recent advances in cutting-edge light microscopy and computational tools have catapulted the field forward and presented us with new avenues and opportunities to address outstanding questions. 

The third iteration of this workshop, which alternates between Janelia and EMBL Heidelberg, brings together members of the mouse developmental community with experts in the latest imaging technologies, computational image analysis and more broadly quantitative biology fields, with the goal of raising awareness about available tools and techniques, unresolved questions or challenges, while fostering discussions on how best to utilize these tools and what tools are still needed. The intimate nature of Janelia meetings fosters an interactive and collaborative environment, and we look forward to open conversations on advancing this small (but growing) field, how best to analyze and share large datasets and how to utilize the massive amount of information new imaging systems will provide. 

This meeting will focus on molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the formation of precise patterns of synaptic connectivity. Over the past decade, considerable progress has been made in uncovering the molecular identity and structure of adhesion complexes at synapses, diverse cell surface recognition molecules contributing to wiring specificity, and the role of activity in sculpting the neural circuitry. In parallel, detailed connectomics at the light microscopy and EM level have uncovered the extraordinary specificity and complexity of connectivity, and single cell sequencing has defined cell types and cell-type specific patterns of cell-surface protein expression during circuit assembly. Light microscopic techniques from super-resolution to expansion microscopy and live imaging have led to important advances in uncovering cell biological mechanisms of circuit assembly. Presentations and discussions will highlight important advances in the field and consider current challenges and future directions.

Cell polarity is a universal feature of all eukaryotic cells and involves the asymmetric organization of different cellular components to enable emergence of specialized functions. A broad range of questions still remain unanswered in this field, including cell polarity’s role in nutrient transport, cell signaling, cell division, surface expression patterns and motility. This conference will bring practitioners studying cell polarity together from different disciplines (including biophysics, cell biology, physiology and theory) to share their science and discuss unresolved questions from a multidisciplinary perspective. Participants will come away from the conference with new ideas born from different perspectives and will have established new contacts and approaches to advance identified problems in the field.