Life Science Category

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Live Cell Category Winners
In Vivo Category Winners
Materials Science Category Winners
Super Resolution Category Winners
Volume Imaging Category Winners

1ST PRIZE: Steven Eamegdool, Children’s Medical Research Institute

Cross Roads. The image was taken using a Zeiss LSM 550 Laser Confocal microscope. A flat-mount of the human retina is shown. The blood vessels were stained with collagen IV (green) and astrocytes were stained with GFAP (red). Interactions between the processes from the surrounding astrocytes onto the vessels can be clearly seen, illustrating the functional significance of these cells in retinal function.

2ND PRIZE: Darren Brown, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland

Human Colon Cancer Cells. Human Caco2 cells were fixed in paraformaldehyde and immuno-labelled with the actin marker phalloidin (magenta), junctional marker E-Cadherin (yellow), and Dapi (cyan) to label the nucleus. Cells were imaged on a Zeiss Axioimager fluorescence microscope with Apotome2. The images were deconvolved using the Zeiss software and colour optimized in Adobe Photoshop.

IN MEMORIAM

In Memoriam of Ron Oldfield These micrographs are taken from a set of Ron Oldfield’s teaching slides. Mr Oldfield was an academic at Macquarie University (he was retired – but still gracing the microscope unit when I was completing my doctorate), as well as Australia’s premier author and practitioner of the techniques of light microscopy. Ron passed On 25 April 2021 age 87, but his legacy still lives on. Vale Ron Oldfield.

DISTINCTION: Oliver Anderson, ARMI at Monash University

The Stem Cell Landscape. An image of a fixed sample of human induced pluripotent stem cells, taken on a Zeiss LSM780 confocal fluorescence microscope. The cells have been stained using Phalloidin Rhodamine (Red-Yellow) and DAPI (White). Cells in interphase spread flat on the surface of the imaging chamber, whereas dividing cells round up and float above.

DISTINCTION: Rhyll Smythe, The Heart Research Institute

A “Gut” Feeling About Rainbow Villi. Described by my colleagues as an “alien rave”, this image depicts a mouse’s intestinal villi with red blood cells (green), cell death marker Annexin V (red), and platelets (blue), clogging the microvasculature in the villi of the small intestine after ischemia reperfusion injury. These images form part of a mouse model investigating the drivers behind endothelial dysfunction and microvascular obstruction. Epifluorescence image acquired on a Zeiss 880 confocal microscope with a 10x objective.

DISTINCTION: Anton Hsu, Telomere Length Regulation Unit, CMRI

Cellular Inferno. This image depicts the protein ZBED6CL (green) localising to mitochondria (red, MitoTracker) when overexpressed in the HeLa cancer cell line. Nuclear staining (blue) and nuclear lamin staining (yellow) are also visible. We have found ZBED6CL to be involved in telomerase regulation and telomere maintenance implicating a role in the molecular mechanisms of cancer cell immortality.