Every summer, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, hosts advanced research training courses that give students and early-career researchers hands-on access to the tools, techniques, and scientific environments used in modern biological research.

Through its partnership with the MBL, Evident provides advanced microscopy and imaging systems—including the FLUOVIEW™ FV5000 and IXplore™ IX85 SpinXL confocal systems and the APEXVIEW™ APX100 benchtop fluorescence system—to support live-cell imaging, time-lapse observation, and hands-on experimentation across select courses.

Access to these advanced imaging tools helps students see biological processes more clearly, ask stronger research questions, and build skills they can carry into future scientific work.

Learning Science by Doing Science

The MBL’s advanced research training courses are designed to move beyond lectures and predetermined laboratory exercises. Students work alongside faculty members, teaching assistants, and microscopy specialists on open-ended questions whose answers may not yet be known.

“The MBL advanced research training courses are really incredible vehicles for training the next generation of scientists and for discovery,” said Cliff Brangwynne, co-director of the MBL Physiology course and a faculty member at Princeton University. “It’s not just education. It’s education through doing.”

That distinction shapes the learning environment. Rather than spending a few hours following a standard protocol, participants may work on a project for several weeks, adapting their methods as new observations emerge.

“The discovery process is very hard to teach,” Brangwynne added. “You can’t just hand somebody a protocol or a book and say: this is how you make discoveries.”

Making Dynamic Biology Visible

Across the advanced MBL courses, microscopy gives participants a way to observe processes that can’t be fully understood through fixed samples or endpoint measurements alone.

Students may watch embryos develop, examine proteins at synaptic interactions, track gene expression, or observe cells as they grow, reorganize, and respond to environmental conditions.

Amy Gladfelter, co-director of the MBL Physiology course and a professor of cell biology and biomedical engineering at Duke University, said the course is built around this direct observation.

“The Physiology course is entirely built around hands-on microscopy,” Gladfelter said. “Nearly every single project and question that gets asked by students in this course involves microscopy.”

Advanced imaging systems enable participants to collect information across both space and time. According to Gladfelter, the resulting combination of spatial detail and temporal resolution can provide a more integrated understanding of cellular behavior.

“What we’re capturing right now with these instruments is a level of resolution, speed, and detail that allows us to really understand the dynamics of cells in real time,” Gladfelter said.

Choosing the Right Imaging Approach

An important part of microscopy training is learning that no single imaging method is appropriate for every research question.

Live-cell imaging may require low phototoxicity and environmental control. Confocal imaging may be used when optical sectioning or fine structural detail is critical. Time-lapse experiments require a balance of acquisition speed, resolution, sensitivity, and sample health.

“A big part of microscopy, and what we’re teaching in the course, is that it’s a decision-making process,” Gladfelter said. “It’s an optimization problem. What do I care about the most? Do I care the most about seeing this through time? Do I care the most about seeing it through space?”

Having multiple imaging systems available allows students to evaluate these tradeoffs directly. They can compare approaches, adjust acquisition parameters, and select a system based on the specimen and the biological question rather than relying only on the equipment available in their home laboratories.

Broadening Access to Advanced Microscopy and Imaging

Many students arrive at the MBL with substantial expertise in their own research areas but limited access to advanced microscopy and imaging systems. The courses provide time, equipment, and technical support that may not be available at their home institutions.

In the MBL Embryology course, participants work with embryos from approximately 40 animal species and conduct extensive imaging throughout the six-week program.

“They are able to use microscopes here that might not be available in their home labs,” said Tatjana Piotrowski, co-director of the MBL Embryology course and an investigator at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. “We have microscopy specialists here who help them work with all these microscopes.”

This supported environment helps reduce the hesitation that can accompany unfamiliar equipment. Participants are encouraged to test ideas, learn from unsuccessful experiments, and refine their methods.

“It breaks down the barrier for them to try all these experiments and image as much as they can,” Piotrowski added.

Wikramanayake described this freedom as central to the course experience.

“What we really emphasize in this course is for students to be fearless,” Wikramanayake said. “They can come here, be bold, and do experiments without really having to worry about them failing.”

That freedom can change how participants approach their work after the course. Students return to their institutions with greater confidence in their ability to use imaging, consult core facilities, evaluate technologies, and design experiments outside their previous areas of experience.

From Training Experiments to Future Research

The work conducted during an MBL course may begin as an exploratory summer project, but its influence can continue well beyond Woods Hole.

Gladfelter refers to the MBL Physiology course as an “idea nursery”—a place where faculty members and students can test experiments that have not yet been explored in depth.

“I would say almost 80 to 90 percent of the experiments that we bring to the course and that are done by students in the course ultimately end up in a publication or some sort of finished product,” Gladfelter said. “Maybe not the microscope image taken in the course, but the experiment is going to be the seed of somebody’s PhD project or a postdoc project.”

A Partnership Built on Equipment and Expertise

The MBL’s intensive training model creates significant demand for microscope access. Partnership support helps provide the range and quantity of systems needed for students, faculty members, and teaching assistants to conduct experiments throughout the courses.

The partnership extends beyond providing instruments. Evident specialists can help participants understand system capabilities, optimize acquisition settings, and identify approaches that may not be familiar even to experienced researchers.

“It’s not just the microscopes that come, but also the expertise of the companies that manufacture those microscopes,” said Nipam Patel, director of the MBL. “They can help explain to the students how to optimize their experiments, the details of how their equipment works, and unusual things the equipment can sometimes do that the students—and sometimes the faculty—don’t even know about.”

For instructors, this combination of technology and application support makes it possible to teach microscopy as an active scientific discipline rather than as a set of predefined operating steps.

Inspiring the Next Biological Question

Advanced microscopy does more than produce detailed images. It enables researchers to recognize unexpected patterns, challenge assumptions, and formulate questions that may not have been possible before they saw a process unfold.

“When students come to a course like this and look at their samples and their cells, they realize how much there is to learn,” said Wikramanayake. “They understand that they really are the future and will help us understand development and cell biology going forward.”

For Piotrowski, that future begins with the experience of seeing something that may never have been observed before. “I hope that they really realize how beautiful nature is and how exciting it is to discover new things,” Piotrowski said.

At the MBL, discovery begins with direct observation: a developing embryo, a moving molecule, a changing cell, or an unfamiliar organism brought into focus. Through hands-on research and access to advanced imaging, participants gain more than technical proficiency. They develop the confidence to follow what they see—and to ask where it might lead next.

The APEXVIEW APX100, FLUOVIEW FV5000, and IXplore IX85 SpinXL are for Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

SZX microscope availability, regulatory status, and intended use vary by country and configuration. Selected models are available for in vitro diagnostic use in certain countries. Products designated for Research Use Only are not for use in diagnostic procedures. Contact your local Evident representative for details.