Contests
Microscopy Image Contest
We would like to extend our congratulations to everyone who participated in the microscopy contest in December. We received 40 entries from 17 participants and the exceptional quality of the images and the wide selection of microscopy techniques made it extremely challenging for the judges to rank the entries. A panel of judges, including a few microscopy experts from Leica, received all entries in digital format. All participant names and microscope brands were removed from the image files and descriptions prior to the evaluation.
1st Place, Dr. Aleksandra Kostina, Dr. Aitor Aguirre’s Lab – “Two halves of one heart” Self-assembling human heart organoid. 
2nd Place, Dr. Artem Kiselev, Dr. Sangbum Park’s Lab – “Skin Corals” In a two-photon photograph of a mouse ear epidermis, Langerhans cells (green), keratinocytes (red), and a layer of connective tissue separating the dermis and epidermis (blue) can be observed. 
3rd Place, Madeline Dawson, Dr. Ripla Arora’s Lab “Bubbles” Embryonic day 18.5 mouse lungs was imaged with a LEICA DFC7000 T microscope and camera set up. It shows how air races through the lungs and fills the lobes just moments after a fetus is taken out of the womb. While growing in the womb, fetuses receive oxygen through maternal blood that travels via the placenta. Fetuses therefore, do not use their lungs until they exit the womb. Upon dissecting an embryo out of the womb and isolating its lungs, tiny bubbles can be seen filling the alveoli. Larger bubbles can also be seen floating outside of the lungs in the surrounding solution as the dissected lungs contract and air is expelled out of the lobes, and back through the trachea. These bubbles, captured using light microscopy, show the very first breath taken by this set of lungs. 
4th Place, Jacob Reynolds, Dr. Brian Johnson’s Lab 40x image of epithelial overlaid on dense mesenchyme in hydrogel is shown. Red-epithelial RFP, Blue- Hoechst (nucleus), Green- calcein-AM (cell body), Far red-tubulin tracker (tubulin). The image was acquired on a Yokogawa CQ1 (spinning disk confocal). 
Brett Volmert, Dr. Aitor Aguirre’s Lab Human heart organoid grown from pluripotent stem cells recapitulates human heart development via the emergence of a proepicardial pole and a dual-chambered, polarized morphology. Blue=DAPI, Red=TNNT2 (cardiomyocytes), Green=WT1 (epicardial cells). The image was captured using a Nikon A1 confocal. 
Keri Gardner, Dr. Brian Johnson’s Lab Ishikawa cells stained for mitochondrial membrane potential (Codex Mitochondrial Potential Indicator) and nuclei (Draq5) are shown; polarized mitochondria (Red), depolarized mitochondria (Green). The image was captured using Yokogawa, Confocal Quantitative Image Cytometer, 40x objective. 
Noura Massri, Dr. Ripla Arora’s Lab – Prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2) expression in a newly formed corpus luteum in a mouse ovary. The image was taken by confocal microscopy. 
Dr. Jonathan Hardy The image is of a biofilm of Group B Streptococcus (Streptococcus agalactiae) grown in liquid culture in a 12-well tissue culture plate. The biofilm forms on the surface of the well of the plate. Biofilms are aggregations of microbes that produce and extracellular matrix inside of which the microbes grow. The extracellular matrix in the image is the bright material, and the individual bacteria are visible as the dark specks. The image was acquired with an Olympus CKX53 tissue culture microscope with phase contrast at 200X total magnification. 
David Broadbent, Dr. Jens Schmidt’s Lab U2OS cells that were endogenously edited with a HaloTag at the Atg9 locus are shown. The recruitment of Atg9 (purple) to 6x Ubiqiutin (green) aggregates and the ubiquitin interacting protein P62 (blue) is investigated. The image was acquired with the DeltaVision microscope. 
Katrina Granger, Dr. Ripla Arora’s Lab – An image of a longitudinal mouse uterine cross section where the uterine lumen, glands, and stroma are visible was captured using confocal microscopy. The tissue was stained to identify E-cadherin (green) on the membrane of epithelial cells and progesterone receptor (red), which is expressed nuclearly in the luminal epithelium, glandular epithelium, stroma, and muscle. This tissue section is from a mouse at gestational day 3.5 of pregnancy, a critical stage right before embryos implant into the uterine lining. 
Sudhanshu Mishra, Dr. Sangbum Park’s Lab – Skin helix: Cryosection view of Mouse-ear skin. The red color is nuclei of epidermal epithelial cells (K14-H2B-mCherry), whereas the collagen looks blue (second harmonic generation). The Images were acquired in vivo using a Leica SP8 DIVE multiphoton microscope. 
Axel Schmitter, Dr. Sangbum Park’s Lab – Top view of a 1mm full-thickness wound four weeks after induction shows how lymphatic vessels regenerate during wound healing in mice skin. Red= Langerhans cells (huLangerin-CreER;Rosa-stop-tdTomato); green= lymphatic endothelial cells (Prox1-EGFP); white= nuclei of epidermal epithelial cells (K14-H2B-Cerulean); magenta= collagen (Second Harmonic Generation). Image acquired in vivo using a Leica SP8 DIVE multiphoton microscope. 
Manoj Madhavan, Dr. Ripla Arora’s Lab A mouse uterus with an embryo implantation site during early pregnancy is shown. The embryo forms a V-shaped implantation chamber and the blood vessels remodel around the implantation chamber. Purple indicates luminal and glandular epithelium (branched structures) and pink indicates vasculature. The image was taken using a confocal microscope (Leica SP8X) at 10x magnification.
IQ Research Day award ceremony (April 2023).