Following the successful COMULIS Conferences in Austria and Sweden, The Cyprus Institute (CyI) hosted the 3rd Annual Conference of the COMULIS COST Action (Correlated Multimodal Imaging in Life Sciences; https://www.comulis.eu), on 21-22 September 2022, in Nicosia, Cyprus. The COMULIS Conference (https://www.comulis.eu/comulis-conference-2022) was preceded on the 20th of September by a day dedicated to COMULIS Internal Working Group Meetings, to work on joint deliverables and objectives.

The COMULIS Conference offered an attractive combination of oral presentations and posters from electron and light microscopy, X-ray, MRI/PET scans to image analysis, and correlated multimodal imaging in synchrotron radiation facilities, with selected poster presenters, invited for short flash talks. It also provided excellent opportunities for discussions and informal gatherings.

The Conference gave emphasis on correlative imaging methods (CMI) able to capture the dynamics of life, spanning the whole range from molecular resolution to imaging whole organisms. Additionally, industry talks were included and provided opportunities to discuss marketable solutions in CMI and cross-corporate workflows to facilitate multimodal imaging. Remarkably, two challenges of our time that COMULIS project contributes towards through its pioneer and innovative results were discussed at the Conference: identifying UV damage to skin in the context of skin cancer and preventive measures, and successful tattoo removal.

The 2022 COMULIS Conference brought together in Cyprus many international, prominent experts, researchers, research instrumentation facility staff and exhibitors from different imaging modalities to stimulate knowledge exchange and the formation of new collaborations. The successful Conference was attended by EU representatives from most EU countries, state and civic officials, and distinguished personalities from the scientific and business world.

The COMULIS (Correlated Multimodal Imaging in Life Sciences) project is an EU funded COST Action that aims at fuelling urgently needed collaborations in the field of correlated multimodal imaging (CMI), promoting and disseminating its benefits through showcase pipelines, and paving the way for its technological advancement and implementation as a versatile tool in biological and preclinical research.

CMI combines two or more imaging modalities to gather information about the same specimen. It creates a composite view of the sample with multidimensional information about its macro-, meso- and microscopic structure, dynamics, function and chemical composition. Since no single imaging technique can reveal all these details, CMI is the only way to understand biomedical processes and diseases mechanistically and holistically.

The Cyprus Institute (CyI) pursues key COMULIS working group activities that focus on correlated multimodal imaging, and building relevant national level infrastructure (BioMERA Platform, https://biomera.cyi.ac.cy), addressing key challenges in life sciences, such as cancer. Dr Kirsi O. Lorentz, Assoc. Prof. at The Cyprus Institute (CyI), is the Cyprus Management Committee Member for the COMULIS Project, as well as the Principal Investigator and Grant Holder of the BioMERA infrastructure project.

The BioMERA Platform (BioMERA Platform for Biosciences and Human Health in Cyprus: MicroCT Enabled and Synchrotron Radiation Enabled Analyses) includes key work packages focusing on building capacity and pursuing case studies of national and regional importance on correlated multimodal imaging in Cyprus and the region beyond. The BioMERA platform is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research and Innovation Foundation.

The 2022 COMULIS Conference was sponsored by Delmic (Gold Sponsor), Imaging & Microscopy Magazine and Zeiss.