This is an advanced course in microscopy, which provides practical, research-oriented experience. The course covers the principles and practice of conventional light microscopy, including an understanding of the preparation of routine paraffin and frozen sections, as well as advanced resin embedding methods; specialised light microscopic techniques such as phase contrast, darkfield and Nomarski differential interference contrast; enzyme histochemistry; immunostaining techniques; fluorescence and confocal microscopy; in situ hybridisation including FISH/CISH; and principles of quantitative microscopy (morphometry). The course will thus help students to gain a better understanding of the correlation between structure and function.