S BEST IMAGE AWARD 2015 (31.10.15) AWARDED TO DR SUSAN CHAPMAN BY THE AS WEBSITE OFFICER

Image Title: Full Frontal Face

Description: A frontal section of an embryonic day 6 chicken head, showing the inner and middle ear, 2nd pharyngeal arches and tongue. Peanut Agglutinin Lectin (red), Sambucus nigra (green) and Wheat Germ Agglutinin (purple) fluorescently label neural tube, cartilage matrix, endothelial cells and epithelia. Lectin staining differentiates between cartilage elements.

Submitted by: Dr Susan C. Chapman, Clemson University

Submitted on: 13 October 2015

AS RUNNER-UP BEST IMAGE AWARD 2015 (31.10.15) AWARDED TO STEPHANE BERNEAU BY THE AS WEBSITE OFFICER

Image Title: In-vitro embryo invasion

Description: Fluorescent image of an advanced in vitro mouse embryo attachment site exhibiting embryo outgrowth into human endometrial Ishikawa cells to detect OPN receptor, CD44, in green.Endometrial CD44 plays a role in embryo attachment and its localisation remains unchanged at embryo invasion site.Blue: Cell nuclei staining. Red: Actin cytoskeleton.

Submitted by: Stéphane Berneau, University of Manchester, Institute of Human Development, Maternal and Fetal Health Research Group

Submitted on: 31 October 2015

AS BEST IMAGE AWARD 2015 (31.05.15)

Image Title: L1 vertebral trabeculae

Description: A sphere digitally cut from a 2.5-year old human L1 vertebral centrum and coloured to highlight variation in trabecular thickness. It was created from microCT data using VGStudio and Drishti, for an ongoing project comparing the ontogeny of vertebral trabeculae in modern humans and Neanderthals.

Submitted by: Crispin Wiles

Submitted on: 31 May 2015

AS RUNNER-UP BEST IMAGE AWARD 2015 (31.05.15)

Image Title: Peeling octopus sucker

Description: A sucker of Octopus vulgaris analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was captured shedding its skin. A Cambridge Stereoscan360 (Image Access, V.3) was used for acquisition; Adobe Photoshop for pseudocolouring (sucker, green; shedding skin, yellow). This micrograph of the normal shedding process reveals the sophisticated nature of the octopus skin’s interdigitations (comparable to rete ridges in human epidermis).

Submitted by: Tanya Shaw

Submitted on: 31 May 2015

AS BEST IMAGE AWARD 2014 (31.10.14)

Image Title: Gecko ‘Chromocranium’

Description: 3D rendering of a gecko skull (Nephrurus levis) from micro-computed tomography (21 um/voxel). Colour corresponds to ambient occlusion (i.e. red surfaces are most visible, blue surfaces least visible). Steep colour gradients highlight foramina. Hidden structures (e.g. bony labyrinth, nasal cavity) can be extracted automatically based on their high occlusion.

Submitted by: Mr James Turbett

Submitted on: 30 October 2014

AS RUNNER UP BEST IMAGE AWARD 2014 (31.10.14)

Image Title: The Mummy's Return

Description: A 15th century Peruvian mummy in a sealed glass-bell underwent forensic "phenotyping". Central to this study, a set of CT 
scans led to subsequent advanced analysis, 3D-renderings and full body/face reconstructions, which together provided critical information 
about the gender, age, condition and other aspects of the person prior to her death.

Submitted by: Professor Luc Bidaut

Submitted on: 28 October 2014

AS BEST IMAGE AWARD 2014 (deadline 31.05.14)

Image Title: Spinal astrocytes

Description: Image shows the morphology of rodent spinal astrocytes, which play an important role in numerous functions in the central nervous system. Vimentin (green) demarcates the cytoskeletal structure, illustrating the extensive processes of these cells and dapi (blue) shows the nucleus. The image was captured using a Zeiss LSM710 Confocal microscope.

Submitted by: Dr Ada Delaney

Submitted on: 14th May 2014

AS RUNNER UP BEST IMAGE AWARD 2014 (deadline 31.05.14)

Image Title: Dil Mouse Embryo

Description: Mouse embryo at embryonic stage E12.5 labeled with DiI, a plasma membrane marker which was incorporated in the entire epithelial surface. By tracing cell movements, key roles of tissue interactions in many aspects of embryonic morphogenesis can be investigated, contributing to the developmental biology knowledge. 

Submitted by: Ms Lemonia Chatzeli, Ms Tathyane Harumi Nakajima Teshima and Dr Marcia Gaete

Submitted: 15th May 2014

FIRST PRIZE

Image Title: Neurospheres

Description:  Enteric neurospheres, generated from Wnt-1Cre;R26YFP mouse gut. Wnt-1 positive neural crest cells express YFP (green). The neurospheres are stained with dapi (blue) and immunolabelled with (from top to bottom in red) p75, TuJ1, GFAP, and Sox10. These immunomarkers confirm that gut neurospheres contain neural crest-derived cells, neurons, glia and ENS stem cells.

Submitted by: Dr Alan Burns and Dr Ellen Binder. 

Submitted on: 25 October 2013

JOINT RUNNER-UP PRIZE

Image Title: Enhanced Tractography

Description: Axial diffusion-weighted MRI tractography image of living human brain. Nerve fibre colour represents movement of water.  Lateral diffusivity: red/orange; anterior-posterior: green; inferior-superior: blue. Acquired on Discovery MR750w 3.0T by GE Healthcare. Enhanced by Ben Crossman. Image to be used as cover of 5th edition of Neuroanatomy (Crossman and Neary; Elsevier).

Copyright statement: The original image was provided to me by GE Healthcare specifically for use as the basis of an illustration for my use. The image was manipulated and enhanced by Ben Crossman and will be used as a book cover illustration by Elsevier Ltd. Elsevier own the copyright to the submitted image. I have obtained specific consent from Elsevier to submit the image for this competition and GE Healthcare are also fully supportive.

Submitted by: Professor Emeritus Alan Crossman and Mr Ben Crossman.

Submitted on: 28 October 2013

JOINT RUNNER UP PRIZE

Image Title: “The Pilgrims”

Description: This pseudo-coloured SEM micrograph shows sensillae located on the in the inner curvature of the forcipular apparatus of the House Centipede - Scutigera coleoptrata.  The forciples have evolved from walking legs into pincer-like structures containing a complex venom gland and duct system; the sensillae aid in prey detection and capture. 

Submitted by: Mr Alexander Black and Dr Michel Dugon.

Submitted on: 30 October 2013

Joint winners were Dr Janelle Pakan (University College Cork) and Dr Abigail Tucker (King's College London) - images below

Title: Oligodendrocyte

Description: An oligodendrocyte (blue) extends to form myelin sheaths (green) to encase Purkinje cell axons (red) in the developing rat cerebellum.  The image shows a projected confocal z-stack from a 250µm cerebellar slice where cellular elements were visualized using immunohistochemistry. Olig2 (an oligodendrocyte specific transcription factor) demarcates the oligodendrocyte nucleus shown in blue, myelin basic protein expression in the oligodendrocyte is shown in green, and neurofilaments within Purkinje cell axons are shown in red.

Submitted by: Dr Janelle Pakan, Post-Doctoral Fellow, UCC, Dept of Anatomy and Neuroscience, Dr. Kieran McDermott Laboratory, Ireland.

Title: Middle Ear Mucosa

Description: SEM of a mouse middle ear mucosa. The mucosa is covered in a lawn of ciliated cells that help to clear the middle ear cavity. Red blood cells pseudocoloured in red. 

Submitted by: Dr Abigail Tucker, Reader in Craniofacial Development and Orthodontics, King’s College, London.

Winners - May 2012

Joint winners were Dr Oran Kennedy (City College of New York) and Dr Kieran McDermott (University College Cork) - images below

IMAGE REMOVED BY REQUEST OF AUTHOR

Title: Osteonal Vascular Junction

Description: Image taken from a cross-section of Villanueva stained cortical bone. It shows an osteonal Haversian canal, with a Volkmans canal emanating from each side. Interestingly the osteon is undergoing mineralization (stained red) and its osteocyte lacunae and, of particular interest, their canaliculi can be clearly seen. Image was acquired using a Zeiss-Apotome Optical Sectioning system.

Submitted by: Dr Oran Kennedy 

Title: Embryonic Spinal Cord

Description: Confocal image of nestin (red) positive radial neuroepithelial cells dorsally and co-localized nestin (red) and BLBP (green) positive radial glial cells ventrally in an 40 micron transverse section of the E14 rat spinal cord. Cell nuclei are labelled with bisbenzimide (blue).

Submitted by: Dr Kieran McDermott

Joint Winners October 2011: Mr. Daniel Tams (University of Durham) and Dr. Jon Colinson (University of Aberdeen) - images below

Runner Up October 2011: Dr Hajihosseini (University of East Anglia)

Mr. Daniel Tams, University of Durham "Neurosphere"

Description: Differentiation and neural induction of human pluripotent stem cells by the novel synthetic retinoid AH61. After 21 days differentiation neurospheres were induced to form long neuritis on laminin/PDL coated tissue culture plastic. Differentiation by the synthetic retinoid AH61 an subsequent neurite outgrowth was highly reproducible and represents a model of human neural development and neurite outgrowth for use in developmental and disease modelling studies. Scale=250µm

Dr. Jon Colinson, University of Aberdeen "E16.5 paw muscle"

Description: Whole mount immunohistochemistry to visualise skeletal muscle myosin in the developing ventral pad of the E16.5 mouse paw. The beautiful complexity of the muscle arrangement is demonstrated in situ.