Advanced Microscopy Facility Micrograph of the Year Competition
One of the highlights of every year at the Advanced Microscopy Facility is the Micrograph of the Year Competition. This competition is open to all Bosch members and registered users of the Facility.
Thanks to all that entered the Bosch Institute AMF Micrograph of the Year Competition in 2009 (and to those supervisors who encouraged their students!). It was another great year. The Top 20 images were on display in the Anderson Stuart Common Room and the Top 5 winners were announced at the end of the Bosch Young Investigators Symposium 2009. Thanks again to the two judges, Assoc Prof. Cedric Shorey (Anatomy & Histology) and Jenny Whiting (EMU), for doing such a fine but difficult job in selecting the winners. I would like to say a special thanks to all the sponsors, since this Competition would have not been possible without their very kind donation of the prizes! Special thanks to Carl Zeiss, Olympus Australia, Nikon/Coherent Scientific, Leica Microsystems and the Bosch Institute.
Bosch Institute Advanced Microscopy Facility Top 20 Micrographs 2009
Images taken by Bosch members and AMF users (left to right):
Top row: Jin Huang, Michael Lovelace, Lisa Nivison-Smith, Jenny Brockhausen, Andrew Affleck
Second row: Luis Munoz-Erazo, Komal Prabhu, Emily Don, Connie Poon, Francine Marquez
Third row: Hussein Mansour, Lisa Nivison-Smith, Hussein Mansour, Sivaraman Purushothuman, De Lian Goh
Bottom row: Ineka Whiteman, Sivaraman Purushothuman, Emily Don, Jenny Brockhausen, Nazanin Ghazanfari
Congratulations to the Top 5 2009 winners shown here from left to right:
First Prize: Connie Poon (Anatomy & Histology, Bosch Institute)
3D projected image of a rat blastocyst in the process of hatching from its external zona pellucida (patchy outer coat surrounding the cellular mass of the blastocyst). Image taken using Zeiss LSM 510 Meta confocal microscope. Blue staining shows cell nuclei of the trophoblast cells comprising the blastocyst and green staining shows the localisation of Mucin 15 protein. This hatching process is necessary to allow the blastocyst to adhere and interact with the epithelial cells of the uterus to allow for implantation and subsequent pregnancy to occur.
Second prize: Hussein Mansour (Anatomy & Histology, Bosch Institute)
Immunohistochemistry of retinal whole mounts shows α-smooth muscle actin (SMA) labelling of inter-laminar fibrous layer (red), NG2-labelling of pericyte cells (blue) and nestin-labelled intermediate filamentous protein at leading edge and branch points (green). This image demonstrates the multi-cytoarchitectural composition of small capillaries that ensures vessel growth and stability of newly formed and aging blood vessels.
Third prize: Emily Don (Anatomy & Histology, Bosch Institute)
Confocal image showing the ventral view of a juvenile Zebrafish (Danio rerio). Anterior is to the top of the image. The newly formed pelvic fins can be seen just anterior to the cloaca, either side of the retreating larval fin fold.
Fourth prize: Andrew Affleck (Physiology, Bosch Institute)
Maximum intensity projection of a 3D orthogonal image of chicken basilar papilla hair cells stained with anti-CtBP2 (C-terminal binding protein) (green) for labeling of ribbon synapse and anti-GluR 2/3 (Glutamate receptor) (red) for labeling glutamate receptor types 2 and 3 inherent in the afferent nerve terminals on the post-synaptic surface. The latter receptor unspecifically aggregated to supporting structures most notably the hair bundle on the apical border to the hair cell. Image taken on Zeiss LSM 510 Meta confocal microscope.
Fifth prize: Sivaraman Purushothuman (Physiology, Bosch Institute)
Structure of cell death: In the brain of a transgenic mouse, haemorrhage has caused cell death and cellular debris is compacted by activated macrophages. The compacting is non-random; an autofluorescent core of yellow-green material is surrounded by a halo of fragmented nuclear DNA (blue), with an outer halo of cytoskeletal fragments of dead astrocytes (red). Image taken with deconvolution microscope.
In 2008, the competition was judged by Assoc. Prof. Cedric Shorey. Assoc. Prof. Shorey was astounded by the high standard of images submitted for the competition. Almost 60 images were received illustrating a wide variety of biological samples, cell and tissue preparation methods and both light and laser microscope techniques.
The Top 20 micrographs were mounted and displayed in the Anderson Stuart Common Room during the week of the Bosch Young Investigators (BYI) Symposium in December 2008.
Bosch Institute Advanced Microscopy Facility Top 20 Micrographs 2008
Images taken by Bosch members and AMF users (left to right):
Top row: Richard Sarafian, Richard Sarafian, Caroline Reddel, Daniel Bax, Minh Huynh
Second row: Komal Prabhu, Andrea Markus, Liz Sloan, Komal Prabhu, Megan Steain
Third row: Michael Lovelace, Yan Li, Hyunchul Lee, Rachel Terry, Yui Kaneko
Bottom row: Evan McFarland, Nick Whitehead, Boating Zhang, Erica Jeong, Margot Day
At the conclusion of the BYI Symposium, the Top 5 winners (images shown below) were presented with fabulous prizes that were generously donated by the Bosch Institute, Carl Zeiss, Nikon and Coherent Scientific, Olympus Australia and Perkin Elmer. Well done to all who entered the Competition!
Top 5 Micrographs 2008
From left to right:
First Prize: Yan Li (Human Reproduction Unit, Royal North Shore Hospital)
Fertilization Point: Mouse 1-cell embryo double-stained for nuclear DNA (Propidium Iodide, red) and methylated 5-cytidine in DNA (FITC. green). It shows the time of fertilization when a sperm first attaches to the surface of the oocyte. This triggers the second meiotic division. It also shows differential DNA methylation in each set of chromosomes.
Second prizes:
- Nick Whitehead (Physiology, Bosch Institute)
Image shows one of the NADPH oxidase proteins, p22phox (green), which co-localises with Caveolin-3 (red) along the muscle fibre surface membrane of an mdx mouse. Nuclei are identified by DAPI staining (blue). - Andrea Markus (Basic & Clinical Genomics Lab, Physiology, Bosch Institute) Image shows co-localization of the RNA binding protein RBM4 (red) with gamma-tubulin (green) in the centrosomes of HEK293 cells during mitosis. Cell nuclei are stained with DAPI (blue).
- Erica Jeong (Anatomy, Bosch Institute) Image shows a 4-day old in vitro cultured cell from tectal tissues of 7-day old chick embryos. Cells were stained with total Tau antibody (red), phalloidin (green) and DAPI (blue).
Third prize: Hyunchul Lee (Physiology)
A medium-spiny projection neuron in the mouse caudate-putamen was filled with neurobiotin using a patch-pipette and visualized using cobalt chloride and diaminobenzidine. These cells reach out with their multiple spiny arbors to gather valuable information arriving from the cortex, sending their own message via long axons to the globus pallidus (pale globe) and the dopamine-secreting subtantia nigra (black substance).
Bosch AMF Micrograph Competition's Top 20 Images
From left to right: Andrea Markus checking out the top 20 images on display!, 2008 winner Nick Whitehead (middle) receives his prize from Assoc. Prof Cedric Shorey and Sue Hart (Carl Zeiss), 2008 winner Erica Jeong (middle) receives her prize from Assoc. Prof. Cedric Shorey and Sophie Tran (Nikon/Coherent Scientific).
