World prize for micro-image

A striking 3D image of the colon in microscopic detail has won the top prize in the international Nikon 2006 Small World Photomicrography Competition.

Dr Paul Appleton in the College of Life Sciences attended a ceremony in New York to receive the prize for his world-class image.

His work will now be shown at a special Nikon Small World event later in the year, featured on a 2007 full-colour wall calendar, and travel the United States as part of a Nikon Small World Museum tour. Dr Appleton also received equipment from Nikon as part of his prize.

Dr Appleton is a member of Dr Inke Nathke's laboratory in Cell and Development Biology. His research is aimed at understanding how changes in cells in colon tissue lead to tumour formation or colorectal cancer.

This form of cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the western world. The research team investigate how the most commonly found molecular changes in colon cancer initiate tumours. Dr Appleton develops and implements imaging techniques including 2-photon microscopy that allow the group to visualise and quantify these changes in the tissue.

His prize-winning image brilliantly conveys the complexity and order in the colon tissue, illustrating the 3D architecture of the surface of the colon and revealing the arrangement of nuclei within the cells that form the lining of the colon.

The image was chosen over 1700 entrants to the international competition, which is open to all disciplines of science. The top twenty prize-winning images are exhibited at numerous museums and science centres throughout the United States.

Dr Appleton also received an honourable mention for an image of villi in the small intestine and Dr Alan Prescott of the Division of Cell Biology and Immunology in the College of Life Sciences received an honourable mention for his image showing the localisation of specific heat shock proteins in cells.

More information about the competition is available at: www.nikonsmallworld.com