# Summary of IRC Conversation on November 3, 2016

* A Cell journal article was shared (http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(13)00770-8), though the specific content wasn't discussed in the visible log.

* Expansion Microscopy (ExM) was discussed as a sample preparation technique that allows researchers to identify small structures by expanding biological samples using a polymer system, with nmz787_ noting it "uses baby diaper chemical and hydrogel, embed a sample in the gel, polymerize, then digest sample and expand gel by adding water."

* A paper by Chozinski et al. in Nature Methods 2016 was mentioned in relation to using DNA oligonucleotides as linkers in expansion microscopy.

* kanzure shared resources about neural network concepts, specifically softmax activation functions, including links to TensorFlow documentation and educational resources (http://neuralnetworksanddeeplearning.com/chap3.html#softmax).

* nmz787_ shared a paper on PRESTO-Tango, described as "an open-source resource for interrogation of the druggable human GPCRome" (http://www.nature.com/nsmb/journal/v22/n5/pdf/nsmb.3014.pdf).

* There was a brief discussion about antigen retrieval, a technique to reduce chemical modifications in formaldehyde-preserved tissues that can interfere with protein detection in procedures like immunohistochemistry.