Session V:
September 17, 2026
BioEM Core Facility Research & Management
Thank you Sponsors!
Antentor (AJ) Hinton, Jr.
Advanced Sample Preparation and Quantitative Structural Analysis in Human, Mouse, and Cell Models: Linking Organelle Morphology to Mechanistic Function
Dr. Antentor Hinton is the Ernest E. Just Early Career Investigator, a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Science Leadership Investigator, and a Burroughs Wellcome Fund CASI Investigator. He is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences, with joint appointments in the Division of Cardiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Meharry Medical College.
His research integrates advanced electron microscopy (SBF-SEM, FIB-SEM, and CLEM) and molecular genetics to investigate how mitochondria regulate mtDNA stability, nucleoid remodeling, and MERC communication, and how estrogen receptor signaling shapes neurohormonal control of blood pressure and pregnancy. His group also develops next-generation EM protocols and AI-based pipelines to classify mitochondrial ultrastructure and organelle interactions.
With an h-index of 35, Dr. Hinton has published 149 papers, delivered more than 200 invited talks, and received over 60 awards, including the ASCB Mentoring Keynote Award and the Vanderbilt Postdoc Faculty Mentor of the Year Award. He has trained and mentored over 90 trainees, including graduate, medical, postdoctoral, and undergraduate students. His mentees have achieved notable successes, including a Fulbright Scholar and a Marshall Scholar, in addition to securing competitive residencies and faculty positions. Dr. Hinton also serves as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences and Current Protocols, and is a member of the editorial boards of Circulation Research, Aging Cell, and several other leading journals.
Xinran Nick Liu
Complementary Cryo-Electron Tomography and FIB-SEM Approaches for Characterizing Bacterial Infection in Host Cells
Xinran Liu is the Director of Center for Cellular & Molecular Imaging (CCMI), the electron microscopy core facility at Yale School of Medicine, and a Senior Research Scientist in Neuroscience. His research focuses on ultrastructural studies of neurons and synapses using advanced electron microscopy techniques. He oversees a comprehensive imaging facility that serves as a major institutional resource for biomedical research at Yale and beyond, providing access to state-of-the-art biological electron microscopy technologies. The facility supports a full spectrum of electron microscopy applications through a team of highly skilled staff members with expertise in sample preparation at both room and cryogenic temperatures, 2D and 3D imaging, image processing, and user training. As a common practice, he collaborates closely with investigators across a wide range of biological and biomedical disciplines, helping researchers leverage EM approaches to address fundamental scientific questions in their fields.
Ashish Gadicherla
Application of Electron Microscopy in Clinical Diagnosis
Ashish Gadicherla is Director of the Oxford Instruments Center for Advanced Imaging–EM Core and Interim Technical Director of the Structural Biology Shared Resources, where he supports researchers in a broad range of imaging applications, from optical microscopy to cryo-electron microscopy. Ashish received his bachelor’s degree in biotechnology and master’s degree in biological sciences from Purdue University. He subsequently conducted research at the Medical College of Wisconsin on mitochondrial respiratory complexes and ion channels before earning his PhD from Ghent University, Belgium, where he studied the role of mitochondrial Connexin 43 channels in cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury. His doctoral research also included planar lipid bilayer electrophysiology to characterize channel properties.
As a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Oslo University, Norway, he investigated the roles of microRNAs and extracellular matrix proteins in cardiac fibrosis. He later pursued structural biology research at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, contributing to structural studies of sodium- and potassium-gated ion channels using cryo-electron tomography.
Abigail Lytton-Jean
Giovanni de Nola
ToCLEM or Not ToCLEM: Overcoming Classical Limitations in Correlative Microscopy
Abigail Lytton-Jean is the Scientific Director of the Nanotechnology for Integrative BioEM (NanoFIB) shared resource at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. Her team serves as an innovation platform focused on the characterization and imaging of biologically relevant materials, with unique expertise in multi-scale electron microscopy (EM) under both room-temperature and cryogenic conditions. Central to NanoFIB’s impact are bespoke, custom-tailored approaches to workflow design, protocol development, and sample preparation that enable advanced volume EM, cryoEM, correlative EM, and immunoEM applications. These integrated preparation and imaging workflows support multiscale structural visualization of cells, tissues, and synthetic materials while enabling precise targeting of regions of interest with nanometer-scale resolution.
Dr. Lytton-Jean received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University under the supervision of Prof. Chad Mirkin. She completed her postdoctoral training at MIT in the laboratories of Prof. Robert Langer and Prof. Daniel Anderson, where she specialized in bio-nanotechnology and drug delivery.
Giovanni De Nola is a Research Scientist at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, where his work focuses on developing advanced Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy (CLEM) methodologies. In particular, he is developing and expanding a cryosection-based CLEM approach that combines molecular labeling with high-quality ultrastructural preservation. The methodology is compatible with multiple super-resolution fluorescence microscopy techniques and both 2D and 3D electron microscopy, providing a versatile platform for correlating molecular information with cellular ultrastructure across imaging scales. Prior to joining MIT, Dr. De Nola worked with Prof. Pascal Kaeser at Harvard Medical School, applying high-pressure freezing/freeze substitution (HPF/FS) and immuno-electron microscopy to investigate the ultrastructural mechanisms of synaptic transmission. He previously completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School in the laboratories of Prof. Tomas Kirchhausen and Steve Harrison, where he studied viral entry in artificial systems and cells using advanced fluorescence and volume electron microscopy. Dr. De Nola received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Pavia, Italy, where he worked with Prof. Ermanno Gherardi on the development of a novel MET receptor agonist.