Course Identification

• Students that have been successfully using immunohistochemistry staining and are familiar with light microscopy imaging.
• The technique that will be taught on the course is not suitable for every sample. Since each student will be working on their own sample, there are specific requirements for samples that can be used:

1. Animal cell culture
2. Organoids and small soft tissues/embryos (up to 2mm in length and 300mm in width)

• Only one student per scientific group will be accepted.
• Each participant should submit a short description of their project and sample of interest to alina.kolpakova@weizmann.ac.il , to ensure compatibility with the course. 
• The participants should be ready to prepare their samples by the beginning of the practical part of the course.

Expansion microscopy is a technique in which fluorophores on fixed specimens are linked to a swellable polymer that is physically expanded to enable super-resolution microscopy, finer than the diffraction limit, with ordinary light microscopes. This practical course aims at hands-on learning of the technique and is intended for students who already have been successfully using immunohistochemistry staining and imaging of their samples, ranging from cells to small tissues. 

During the course each student will work on their own sample, and will present their project and results, achieved during the course.

After this course you should be able to:

• Appreciate the theory of expansion microscopy
• Appreciate the resolution of expansion microscopy given the specific probes and specimens
• Apply expansion microscopy on your own samples once back in your laboratory (sample preparation and imaging)
• Spread the technique to your colleagues in their respective laboratories