Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Snapshots of Life: Mending Broken Hearts
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Caption: Micrograph of laboratory-grown rat heart muscle cells. Fluorescent labeling shows mitochondria (red), cytoskeleton (green), and nuclei (blue).
Credit: Credit: Douglas B. Cowan and James D. McCully, Harvard Medical School, Boston
This may not look like your average Valentine’s Day card, but it’s an image sure to warm the hearts of many doctors and patients. Why? This micrograph, a winner in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s 2013 BioArt Competition, shows cells that have been specially engineered to repair the damage done by heart attacks—which strike more than 700,000 Americans every year.
Working with rat heart muscle cells grown in a lab dish, NIH-supported bioengineers at Harvard Medical School used transplant techniques to boost the number of tiny powerhouses, called mitochondria, within the cells. If you look closely at the image above, you’ll see the heart muscle cells are tagged in green, their nuclei in blue, and their mitochondria in red.
Snapshots of Life: Sore Throat as Art
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Credit: Vincent A. Fischetti, The Rockefeller University
Most parents and kids wouldn’t consider strep throat the subject of high art. But the judges of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s 2013 BioArt competition think it is. In this silver-toned scanning electron micrograph, you can see hundreds of tiny spheres—bacteria called Group A streptococci—attached to a human pharyngeal (throat) cells grown in a lab dish. These bacteria are responsible for a very nasty type of pharyngeal inflammation commonly known as strep throat. Strep infections are usually treated with antibiotics; left untreated, they can lead to rheumatic fever, rheumatic heart disease, and even kidney disease.
Snapshots of Life: NIH’s BioArt Winners
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Credit: FASEB
If you follow my blog, you know that I like to feature spectacular images that scientists have created during the course of their research. These images are rarely viewed outside the lab, but some are so worthy of artistic merit and brimming with educational value that they deserve a wider audience. That’s one reason why the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) launched its BioArt contest. Of the 12 winners in 2013, I’m proud to report that 11 received support from NIH. In fact, I’m so proud that I plan to showcase their work in an occasional series entitled “Snapshots of Life.” Continue reading to see the first installment—enjoy!
