30 October 2007

Dundee University's stunning images of Medical Science

Stunning images of cancer cells, groundbreaking tools for keyhole surgery and colourful chromosomes are among the winning entries of a photography exhibition staged by the University of Dundee’s School of Medicine.

The winning images will go on show within the School, housed within Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, this week.

The competition was designed to showcase the diversity of research being conducted in the school, which has established an international reputation in research areas such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and obesity.

The striking winning image, produced by Andrew Campbell, a PhD student who is sponsored by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and is studying in the Division of Pathology and Neuroscience in the Medical School, shows a view of cancer cells stained for a protein implicated in disease progression in skin cancer.

"The winning images that have come out of this competition are absolutely stunning, but not only are they striking to look at, in many cases they can also give us a real insight into how our bodies work," said Professor Irene Leigh, Vice-Principal of the University and Head of the College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, who will present the competition prizewinners with cheques during a prize award event on Tuesday October 30th.

The second prize entry, from James Gove, a technician in the Division of Surgery and Molecular Oncology, shows an imaginative image of an endoluminal cone, a device undergoing development for use in keyhole surgery procedures. Third place went to Helen Sanderson, a post-doctoral research assistant in the Biomedical Research Centre, for her colourful composition of chromosomes visualised in human cancer cells, while fourth prize was won by a spider-like image of a nerve cell by Sarah Mizielinska, a Ph.D. student in the Division of Pathology and Neuroscience.

The competition, which was open to staff and students within the Medical School, was organised by Dr Jenny Woof, Reader in Immunology in the Division of Pathology and Neuroscience, in collaboration with Dr Wynne Carter, Head of Computing and Media Services and his colleagues.

The winning images are attached, with captions below.

Captions

1st prize - Andrew Campbell
Cancer cells change morphology and adhesiveness, contributing to disease progression. This image represents a 3D reconstruction of confocal images of TR146 keratinocytes stained for ezrin, which is significant in metastasis. Our aim is to determine how changes in ezrin contribute to alterations in cell:cell contacts and disease progression in skin cancer.

2nd prize - James Gove
Endoluminal Cone. Currently being developed by IMSaT, the Institute of Medical Science and Technology, part of University of Dundee, the endoluminal cone offers an alternative to some keyhole surgery procedures.

3rd prize - Helen Sanderson
Crazy Chromosomes. A collection of images taken of cultured human cancer cells as they undergo mitosis. To help understand this dynamic process, chromosomes and individual proteins within a cell may be readily visualised when stained with fluorescent labels, as shown here. Confocal microscopy was used to take the images.

4th prize - Sarah Mizielinska
An isolated hippocampal neuron with highlighted dendritic spines, the sites of synaptic input from surrounding neurons in a huge neuronal network. Recombinant expression of fluorescently tagged 2 (green) and 3 (red) subunits that form part of the major inhibitory GABAA receptor in the brain (colocalisation can be seen in yellow).

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