Cancer cells move through 12-micron sized channels in response to differing nutrient concentration, in a study about how cancer spreads to different parts of the body. Image credit: Salil Dasai/Wellcome Images.

This image depicts an obstacle race of sorts: it shows a number of cells trying to move along micron-scale channels to test their response to their chemical environment. When living cells sense a concentration gradient of some chemical they’re interested in so that, say, they sense some nutrient is bigger over there than back-over-here, they may try to hobble over to make the most out of the situation. (And, of course, depending on the kind of cell they may be quite proficient at hobbling over.)

These particular cells are human breast cancer cells racing towards a nutrient called epidermial growth factor. Under normal conditions, these cells are in fact the tendril-tips of an expanding cancerous tumour that’s ready to metastasise – that is, to spread to other tissues and organs. Metastasising cancer cells to not in fact simply drift along wherever the blood or lymphatic fluid it’s in will take them; rather, they actively seek out nice nesting places for offshoot tumours to grow. The study this picture forms part of tries to understand where and why the invading cancer cells will try to move, in an effort to interfere with the process and stop cancer from spreading.

Here the cells completely block the 12-micron channels they’re in which allows researchers to make the concentration different on the forward and backward sides of each cell; this concentration is shown in green. The image technique is also quite interesting for me. The nucleus and mitochondriae have been dyed so that they’ll fluoresce in blue and red, and the rest of the cell, which would normally be invisible, is captured using phase contrast microscopy, which uses interference with a secondary light beam to detect slight delays in light travel time through the cell as compared to the surrounding fluid.

Chicken embryo vascular system. Photograph by Vincent Pasque, University of Cambridge

…And I thought I was lucky enough to get the picture of a brain (I think brains are VERY interesting). Glasses on and looking more closely I find that is a Chicken embryo vascular system. Still looks kind of brainish to me (maybe a bit of background is needed here, I’m a physicist and last time I looked at a biology book was very long ago). A quick search on google images for “human brain cross section” shows me that the ramifications I misunderstood for the ones in a brain are much thinner that what they should be. Well, I’ll go to bed tonight having learnt at least one more thing. But still, I’m assuming the embryo is the figure in the middle, what on earth are those trees?

On reading the description of this Wellcome Trust image, I learn that the tree ramifications at both sides of the embryo are the net of veins and arteries that are used to support  the flow of blood to feed the embryo. Just the mention of blood and a shiver goes down my spine. I’m one of those people who has to look away when getting a blood test (although I’m proud to say I’ve never fainted!). And still I find it amazing that only two days after fertilisation, this system is already in place to make the embryo into a full being. Isn’t Nature amazing?

Just imagine how much work do we (poor humans) have to put into the development of networks. Think of this embryo as a system composed of many elements (in this case organs, cells, etc) just like a city. And the yolk as the resource (wink wink resource theories, QI is never out of my mind really), let’s say the outskirts of a city wherefrom food is retrieved from. Think about how many headaches the development of such a network would cause to any individual in charge of it. Yes, and Nature does it in two days. In my opinion, mind-blowing.

Fernan Federici & Jim Haseloff, Wellcome images

This amazing image is a described as a “confocal micrograph shows the tissue structures within the leaf of an Arabidopsis thaliana seedling”. However, I have no idea what that is but a quick google search turns up the wiki page which includes a picture of the plant itself.

This scraggly plant to my uneducated eye looks like something  that squeezes its way up through the cracks in the pavement and deserves a good dose of weedkiller.  However, after seeing the seedling image perhaps I’ll feel differently in future.

Scanning Electron image of a Moth Fly (Psychodidae)

…or at least if we lived in the world of B movies, you could expect to meet him looming out of the gloom, but luckily for us, he’s actually way too small to be anything other than a mild nuisance.

This image from the recent Wellcome Image Awards, taken by Kevin MacKenzie at the University of Aberdeen, is actually of a moth fly, aka drain fly, aka a tiny wee guy no more than 4 or 5mm long. They are a common bathroom pest, and no doubt you’ve probably seen one flying woozily around, but probably never stopped to think what he actually looks like face to face… well, here you go – crazy moustache-like feelers, super-hairy legs, and well, actually quite a lot of hair everywhere!

I have to say, I have always had a love affair with scanning electron images. I had my first (and so far only) experience of using a scanning electron microscope during my undergrad degree at the University of Glasgow – I was looking at tadpoles, mainly at how their forelimbs develop, but I also took the opportunity to have a wee swatch inside their mouths. Crazy, eh? Those are tadpole teeth, and are probably not how you’d imagine they looked, which is the joy of using a scanning electron microscope – the most mundane things become so much more fascinating when seen close up.

ANNIE CAVANAGH AND DAVID MCCARTHY

This false-coloured scanning electron micrograph shows caffeine crystals. Caffeine is a bitter, crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a stimulant drug. In plants, caffeine functions as a defence mechanism. Found in varying quantities in the seeds, leaves and fruit of some plants, caffeine acts as a natural pesticide that paralyses and kills certain insects feeding on the plant. The main crystals of caffeine were 400-500 microns long; however, this crystal group formed on the end of the larger crystal and measures around40 microns in length

What are the physiological effects of caffeine consumption?

Beverages containing caffeine - including coffee, tea, soft drinks and energy drinks - are extremely popular, and 90 per cent of adults consume caffeine daily. Caffeine acts as a metabolic stimulant on the central nervous system, reducing physical fatigue and drowsiness. Less than an hour after consumption, caffeine is reported to improve the flow of thought and increase focus and body coordination. However, the amount of caffeine required to produce these effects depends on a person’s body size and degree of tolerance. The effects usually disappear after five hours. Too much caffeine can cause restlessness, nervousness, insomnia, nausea and vomiting, but normal levels of consumption (approximately 200-300 mg daily) pose few known health risks.

Cell Division

This composite confocal micrograph uses time-lapse microscopy to show a cancer cell (HeLa) undergoing cell division (mitosis). The DNA is shown in red, and the cell membrane is shown in cyan. The round cell in the centre has a diameter of 20 microns.

The beautiful image above shows a reflection of connectivity in the brain taken by nuada medial specialist imaging and one of the 2011 Wellcome images award winning photographs.

To give a little introduction in ‘brain imaging’, we can see the anatomy of the brain by MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) since the 70ies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_resonance_imaging).

Since about 10 years, apart from anatomy, we can also see how chemicals and electrical signals are transmitted in the brain.

The medical database ‘Pubmed’ comes up with about a 1000 hits in the past 10 years (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Diffusion%20tensor%20tractography%20).

Hopefully this technology will quickly move out of research settings into practice

A nice blog on this topic can be found on: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/your-brain-on-the-screen/71665/

The following image was submitted by Ian Smyth from Monash University:

This striking image captures a mouse embryo using ‘Optical Projection Tomography’- a technique which produces 3D images from light projected through an entire specimen. Denser tissues allow less light to penetrate it, so appear darker. By imaging the specimen as it rotates around 360 degrees, a 3D image can be build up by combining the shadow projections. This relatively new technique has quickly gained a reputation for producing high resolution images at the molecular level, with applications including gene expression.

Monash’s image highlights the developing organs in a mouse embryo. By staining the E-cadherin protein present in the speciment- which plays an important role in cell-cell interactions- the structures of the organs have been marked. The mouth and eyes of the embryo can clearly be seen, as they have significant staining.  If you look closely enough, you can even see the developing urinary tract at the bottom of the image.

Images with this degree of depth and resolution are invaluable to produce accurate and detailed biological images of  specimens and Optical Projection Tomography is at the forefront of advances in 3D images.

Belize certainly is a beautiful country, and since it’s so small you can go from the beautiful beaches on the coast to the depth of the jungle in less than six hours. This gives the country a variety that is just incredible! Have a look at this video to give you an idea:

However, as Belize has a tropical climate (it’s located between Mexico and Guatemala in Central America), one has to be aware of potentially lethal tropical diseases. I consider myself to be a usually well-prepared traveller, but this time I somehow slipped up – I was sure I’d read somewhere that malaria wasn’t present in Belize, so I didn’t take any prophylaxis or even used insect repellent while I was there – it’s so sticky, like suncream! Ugh! At least with suncream I’ve become really thorough, but insect repellent… Well, I’ve now learnt my lesson!

As most of you know, malaria is transmitted by mosquitos. Beautiful creatures, if you have a closer look at them:

Spike Walker, Wellcome Images

However, my look must’ve been a bit too close: three days before the end of my holiday, I came down with a fever. And what a fever! One night I seriously thought someone had emptied an entire bucket of water onto my bed as it was literally dripping with sweat. Well, I’ll spare you any further details, but let me tell you this: the fever came back once a week for a month and a half after I returned home. My GP referred me to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (HTD), who tested me for all sorts of diseases, including malaria. They were so sure that that’s what it was, I had four tests done – all of them negative…

In the end, as good and thorough as they were, they never found out what it was, and now it’s finally gone. But one thing is certain: for my next holiday, I will 1) go to the HTD before I leave to get all my vaccinations, 2) take malaria prophylaxis while I’m travelling, and 3) use that insect repellent, as annoying and sticky as it might be!

Derren Ready/Wellcome Images

Dental hygiene is certainly nowadays important as ever, however with deeper understanding of the causes and mechanisms which lead to tooth decay and gum diseases we can protect our precious teeth better than ever. It would be really nice if research from this area would lead to some improvements in toothpastes to help conquer all these little enemies better than it is currently possible. I can imagine applying some new generation toothpaste on Monday and then be protected from bacteria for next seven days would be really great step ahead. However I am probably dreaming right now .