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Science in Real Time (ScienceIRT) podcast serves as a digital lab notebook—an open-access, conversational platform that brings the stories behind cutting-edge life science tools and techniques into focus. From biologics to predictive analytics and AI-powered innovation, our guests are shaping the future of therapeutic discovery in real time.
Transcript
It's Monday morning at the Renaissance Boston waterfront. Posters are going up, bright imaging displays are flickering on, and you can hear the buzz of conversations filled with words like AI scientists, multi-omics, and 3D organoids. This is SBI2 2025, the annual meeting of the Society of Biomolecular Imaging and Informatics, where imaging meets information and information meets discovery. I'm Carli Reyes, and in this episode of Science in Real Time, we're taking you inside the energy, the science, and the community of this year's event. For anyone new to SBI 2, here's the backdrop. The society is dedicated to advancing quantitative imaging and analysis and connecting biologists, data scientists, and engineers who want to measure biology visually. The program featured everything from deep learning tutorials and 3D model imaging to informatics and essay design. But this year, one theme stood out above all and that theme was integration. Integration between imaging and informatics, between wet labs and data pipelines, between people who capture images and those who make sense of them. The field is embracing reproducibility, interoperability and cloud computing like never before. And that trend was visible on the show floor too with vendors showcasing integrated platforms and automated pipelines. Of course, it wasn't just about the talks. It was about the people and the ideas that they sparked. At this year, Araceli had an incredible present as SBI2. Victoria Arinella, a summer intern at UF Scripts Institute, presented her poster on improving essay reproducibility using automated image quality metrics. It drew a lot of attention from researchers curious about how better QC tools can boost confidence and speed up analysis, something that we care very deeply about at Araceli.
And here we are in SBI2 in Victoria's poster and we have her right here where she's going to be talking to us a little bit about what this project entailed. and thinking about it. So, this project is one that I did as an intern at the UF Scripts Institute. It was a two-month internship over this past summer as a part of the NSF sponsored surf program. And um I was assigned to be in Dr. Spicer and Scampavia's lab, which is a screening lab that specializes in the high throughput screening of small molecules. Specifically, my project focused on cell painting. Um, which is basically an assay that we can use to stain different cellular components using various dyes and then image using uh fluorescent microscopy. And what was kind of interesting or or novel about this particular project is that I had the opportunity to use the um high-speed and high throughput instrument called the RSLI endeavor which allowed us to increase the high throughput ability of these cell painting assays because often they can be limited in high throughput ability due to the amount of time it takes to image a single plate. But with the RSLi, we were able to image a single plate in under 6 minutes. So, it really was optimal for a summer project because I was able to perform multiple of these cell painting assays and increase my optimization um during each experiment. And so, it was really um really just great for a a short two-month project where otherwise we may not be able to have done too much if the imaging alone were to take hours. Then came Claudia McCown's talk. Claudia is a postoc at UF Scripps Institute and she looked at collaborative imaging and data sharing across research sites. She made a strong case for how open and connected workflows can accelerate translational discovery, breaking down silos between labs and organizations. Across sessions, you could feel the momentum. The multiomics integration talks explored imaging side by side with genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics. Truly multi-dimensional biology. Meanwhile, technological innovation sessions feature platforms for 3D screening, organoid essays, and automated pipelines that tie hardware and software together seamlessly. And beyond the science, the networking and community energy were unmatched. poster sessions humming with collaboration, bender boots alive with conversation, and an evening reception that felt like the entire imaging world coming together. What makes SBI2 special isn't just the technology. It's the culture of openness, curiosity, and mentorship. It's students presenting their first poster next to CEOs and principal investigators, all united by the same goal, to see biology more clearly. And to cap off the Araceli crew, Kristin, our senior business development manager and new SBI2 president, captured the future perfectly.
This has been a very exciting year at SBI2. Once again, we had a full day of educational and hands-on workshops, which is great for everyone to learn about different things. And then the last two days have been full of really fantastic speakers covering everything from imaging, data science, the interface between the two of them. Um we have a bunch of fantastic vendors here to uh exhibit all of the things that they have to help expand this research and we are excited about next year. We'll be back here at the Renaissance. Um even more exciting speakers to come. Um if you have ideas, suggestions or would like to join the society, definitely do. Um next year is going to be even more exciting and we hope we see you then. Next year's SBI2 promises even more focus on AI integration, automation, and 3D models. And we at Araceli are already excited to be a part of that journey.
And that is a wrap for today's Science in Real Time episode. In our next episode, we'll sit down with Claudia from Scripps exploring how collaborative imaging is transforming translational research and discovery pipelines. If you enjoyed this episode, remember to like and subscribe to Science in Real Time wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Follow Biosciences for behindthe-scene flips and conference takeaways. And if you were at SBI2, we'd love to hear what inspired you. Share your thoughts and tag us to join the conversation.