Biomedical Beat Blog – National Institute of General Medical Sciences
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Color electron micrograph of an endosome, a cell organelle. Credit: Ranjan Ramachandra, UCSD As his Christmas gift to himself each year, the late biochemist Roger Tsien treated himself to two weeks of uninterrupted research in his lab. This image is a product of those annual sojourns. While it may look like a pine wreath dotted …
Continue reading “Cool Image: Adding Color to the Gray World of Electron Microscopy”
@media screen and (max-width: 480px) { .halloween-out { width: 96.5%; } .halloween-out .halloween-in img { padding-top: 42px; padding-right: 12px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 320px) { .halloween-out { width: 96%; } } In case you missed the fireworks this weekend, we’ve put together a collection of firework-like images from basic research studies. Viral Electricity …
Continue reading “Cool Images: An Independence Day-Inspired Collection”
This image, taken with a confocal microscope, shows how time-of-day information flows through the fruit fly brain. Clock neurons (stained in blue) communicate with leucokinin (LK) neurons (stained in red at the top left, top right and bottom middle), which, in turn, signal to leucokinin receptor (LK-R) neurons (stained in green). This circuit helps regulate …
Here are some images from our gallery that remind us of the winter holidays—and showcase important findings and innovations in biomedical research. Ribbons and Wreaths This wreath represents the molecular structure of a protein, Cas4, which is part of a system, known as CRISPR, that bacteria use to protect themselves against viral invaders. The green …
These bright, amorphous loops represent a never-before-seen glimpse at how proteins that play a key role in cell duplication are themselves duplicated. Credit: Sue Jaspersen, Zulin Yu and Jay Unruh, Stowers Institute for Medical Research. Looking like necklaces stacked on a dresser, these bright, amorphous loops show the outlines of yeast proteins that make up …
As Halloween approaches, we turned up some spectral images from our gallery. The collection below highlights some spooky-sounding—but really important—biological topics that researchers are actively investigating to spur advances in medicine. Cell Skeleton The cell skeleton, or cytoskeleton, is the framework that gives a cell its shape, helps it move and keeps its contents organized …
Continue reading “Cool Images: A Halloween-Inspired Cell Collection”
A computer-generated sketch of a DNA origami folded into a flower-and-bird structure. Credit: Hao Yan, Arizona State University. This image of flowers visited by a bird is made of DNA, the molecule that provides the genetic instructions for making living organisms. It shows the latest capability of a technique called DNA origami to precisely twist …
Modular microfluidics system. Credit: University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering. Like snapping Lego blocks together to build a fanciful space station, scientists have developed a new way to assemble a microfluidics system, a sophisticated laboratory tool for manipulating small volumes of fluids. Microfluidics systems are used by scientists to perform tasks as diverse …
Stem cells grown on a soft surface begin to transform into neurons. Credit: Kiessling Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison. If you think this image looks like the fluorescent outline of a brain, you’re on the right track. The green threads show neurons that have just formed from unspecialized cells called stem cells. Researchers led by Laura …
A healthy cell (green) that has ingested dying cells (purple). Credit: Toru Komatsu, University of Tokyo. In this image, a healthy cell (green) has engulfed a number of dying cells (purple) just as a predator might ingest wounded or dying prey. A team of researchers is hoping to use this same strategy at the cellular …
Continue reading “Cool Image: Training Cells to Devour Dying Neighbors”