Striking Image 2024 Winners

MSc/MD Student

Lab: Dr. Sarah Childs

Summary: Pericytes (blue: "vascular support cells") and blood vessels (red) in a whole adult zebrafish brain. Pericytes are essential for vascular stability in the brain and defects in these cells and their coverage can underly vascular disease. 

PhD Candidate

Lab: Dr. Li-Fang (Jack) Chu

Summary: The image shows an organoid, which are a tiny, simplified version of an organ grown from stem cells in a lab that closely resembles that organ and can be used to understand its development and disease. This particular organoid represents a human "somite-forming" organoid. Somites are temporary, block-like structures that form one after another along an embryo’s main body axis during the first month of pregnancy. Later, they help form the backbone, which supports the vertebrate skeletal system. In the image, you can see that this organoid has formed five somite-like blocks, stacked together to create a column. Each somite has a buildup of Actin protein (shown in red) in the centre and around the periphery, a characteristic of real somites. In our lab, we use these organoids to study human spine-related developmental disorders, which may involve a disorganized backbone, missing or fused ribs, and poor posture.

Postdoctoral Fellow​

Lab: Dr. VW Yong​

Summary: Your brain contains a large network of cables, over which electrical impulses are constantly exchanged. Oligodendrocytes wrap these cables in an insulating layer of myelin, speeding up brain signals by up to 100-fold. Here, you see an oligodendrocyte at work. Notice the pink cell below? That’s a microglia, one of the brain’s inspectors, stopping by.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Lab: Dr. Aaron Phillips

Summary: This image shows a transparent mouse heart, with the nerves in blue and blood vessels in red. We found that after spinal cord injury, nerve fibers in the heart are lost, leading to heart disease. We’re using this data to find therapies to improve heart health for people with spinal cord injury.

Postdoctoral Associate

Lab: Dr. Wee Yong

Summary: Here's a sample of tissue from a mouse's cerebellum, which is part of the brain that controls movement and balance. I'm using this brain slice to study a new protein to see if it harms cells. By testing on this tissue, I can observe directly whether the protein is toxic and damages cells in a living-like environment.

Research Associate

Lab: Dr. Craig Jenne

Summary: Oncolytic virus infection of the spleen drives anticancer immunity. F4/80+ macrophages are shown in magenta, CD169+ macrophages are shown in blue, infected cells are shown in green.