Robert Cooper
21st April 2023

Images of Research 2023 - Health and Wellbeing Category

Posted in: Doing Public Engagement

, , ,

Entries in the Health and Wellbeing category of the Images of Research 2023 competition.

The image is a photo taken of a child completing two exercises from the PLUTO program: a psychological support program designed for children with Developmental Language Disorder. The top sheet is a Feelings Thermometer; the bottom sheet is a Weekly Emotion Tracker. The child has coloured in the feelings thermometer with the colours they associate with different emotions. For example, they associate yellow and green with happiness and light blue with tiredness. The child has also coloured in the cut-out PLUTO characters to match them with each emotion. The child’s hand is shown completing the ‘Tuesday’ on the Weekly Emotion Tracker, by first colouring in the PLUTO character, before drawing where the child feels the emotion in their body.
Visual tools for invisible children

 

Tiled images of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), marked with fluorescent indicators of hypoxia inducible factors (HIF), acquired by a specialised imaging platform. High functional states of the specific biomarkers (HIF) are the red and orange regions. The presence of the green biomarker regions (amount of HIF) does not correlate with the red/orange regions of the biomarker (HIF) functional state.
Functional Spatial Mapping of Cancer

 

These images show cross-sections of 3 individual medulloblastoma 3D spheroids, stained with red and green markers indicating the presence of proteins expressed in low oxygen conditions, along with proteins involved in cell death, cellular growth signalling, and structural proteins.
Modelling paediatric brain tumours in 3D

 

A scientist holding a whole mouse lung section.
Mouse Lung to Human Drug Discovery

 

The image shows one slice of a 3D alveolar structure. Cells were isolated from patient-derived lung tissue and grown in a 3D matrix under sterile cell culture conditions. After three weeks of cultivation, cells were fixed and stained. Blue: Hoechst (DNA), red: Phalloidin (actin cytoskeleton), green: MUC-1 (a mucin-based biomarker for lung fibrosis). Image was taken using high-content confocal microscopy.
Rebuilding the Human Breathing Unit

 

Image shows a crystal-like shape (a decagon) with the central face showing a crystal. The crystal symbolises protein crystals which are analysed through x-ray crystallography. On the outer faces of the decagon are the protein structures which are worked on by our group. Each image of the protein has a picture to its right, showing the application of the protein. For example, one structure is of neprilysin enzyme and to the right is a picture of the brain, as neprilysin is involved in Alzheimer’s disease development. Neprilysin is followed by ACE, PfAPP, AMACR and BoNT, these are involved in heart failure, malaria, cancer, and paralysis respectively.
Battling Disease Through Structural Understanding

 

The picture shows head-on a model of the nose of a Pacific hagfish, coloured steel-grey. The nose is surrounded by six tentacles, three on the left, three on the right. The upper half of the picture is dominated by a cavernous aperture – the hagfish’s single nostril. A rugged passage leads away from the nostril, narrowing as it does so. At the end of the passage is a spade-like feature, with the blade pointing down, and the shaft vertical. Four narrow channels, barely visible, lie parallel to the shaft, two on the left, and two on the right.
Inhaler

 

A tartan or woven type pattern in red and green interspersed with blue spots. The red and green colours, representing structural elements of stem cells, are oriented mostly vertically, but with some striking broken horizontal lines. The blue small bright blue spots show the DNA present in every cell.
Micropatterning human stem cells

 

On the left a picture of a boy playing the piano, the boy and the picture are in black and white except for his hands and the piano which have an orange like shade of colour which spread to a second picture to the right where the same boy is smiling after finishing to play his piece.
Music training for a healthy brain

 

The photo shows an office space with chairs and tables facing a large ornate wooden chair for the coroner at the front of the room, behind which is a crest. There is a large computer screen facing where the families would sit that shows the remote attendees.
The last days: a Coroner’s Court

 

A carbon furnace is heating up a glass structure in the centre of a metallic structure.
Out of the furnace

 

The image is of the human body, showing organs, muscles and the vascular system. Located on different positions of the body are the structures of various different proteins. For example, located on the brain is a molecule called neprilysin, which is involved in Alzheimer's disease. Located on the arm is botulinum neurotoxin, involved in neuromuscular paralysis, located on the heart is angiotensin converting enzyme which regulates blood pressure, and located on the prostate is Alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase involved in prostate cancer.
Combating disease with structural biology

 

A one-cell embryo floating on water and a cancer cell reflected in a water mirror.
To begin at the beginning

 

Teaching materials for a group workshop are laid out in a circle on a red carpet. Four coloured cloths are laid in a circle around a globe and a vase of red flowers to represent the four phases of the moon, which also relate to the phases of the menstrual cycle. On each of the four cloths there is a picture of a goddess and a coloured candle. Each phase is represented by a different colour cloth and the picture of a goddess. The new moon represents the menstrual period or red moon. The crescent moon is white and represents the follicular phase. The full moon is blue, full of energy and represents the ovulation phase. Finally, the waning moon is purple and represents the luteal phase. To the side of the picture, we can also see a picture of a uterus and a diagram of the moon phases. There is also a box of pamphlets for participants to take away and in the top right you can just see the feet of two women who participated in the group workshop.
La luna roja (the red moon)

 

A small plastic dish with a cream-coloured larva inside. The larva is covered with a thin layer of translucent hydrogel. A single beam of purple plasma is directed onto the larva from above.
Development of a Wound Disinfection System

 

A cross-section of a glass hollow core fibre designed for ultra-violet light. A purple centre is surrounded by a darker glass structure.
Deep UV Hollow Core Fibre

 

Patience is a small rag doll created by a participant during the co-constructive workshops in my PhD project. The rag doll expresses the value of using these perspectives to think about recovery from abuse differently. Considering Patience shows she has her own structure, agency, and meaning, yet requires support and direction to move or hold herself up. Patience embodies how it takes time, different approaches, and work to heal from abuse. The use of different embroidery techniques on her skirt symbolises healing experiences strengthening and reinforcing her. Her skirt has multiple layers of fabric and memories. Patience has a mirror underneath her hair, recognising the need for introspection during the uncovering and patching process within recovery. Her natural colours are healing. There are still areas of reds or oranges, indicating uncovered trauma on her skirt. The blend of old and new materials or concepts, like her grey hair, represents time. Past, present and future healing. She holds a needle in her left hand, maintaining how recovery and healing are ongoing. She is always transforming and has infinite possibilities.
Transforming approaches to recovery with Patience

 

In the middle part of the picture, four parallel bright areas represent four 17mm-long × 6mm-wide microcapillary strips. From the bottom to the top, number from 1 to 4. Each strip contains 10 microchannels from top to bottom, which are loaded with different concentrations of transparent Ampicillin solution (an antibiotic used to treat a number of diseases caused by bacterial infections, such as respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, meningitis) from 0.5 μg/mL to 128 μg/mL by 2-fold gradient dilution. There are five bright and one semi-bright channel at the top of strip 1, which indicates there is bacterial growth under the low concentration ampicillin, and vice versa, the grey and darker four channels at the bottom of strip 1 imply no bacterial growth. For strip 2, it has the same bright/dark channel numbers as strip 1 but is less bright as a whole. For strip 3, only two channels in the top have bright signs while strip 4 has only some bright points dispersed in the first 5 channels. This is the half-end point for 6 hours culture that shows the high bacterial concentration group (the bottom strip) has grown and the low concentration group (top strip) remain with no apparent growth. Within every group bacterial growth in the high concentration of antibiotics is inhibited and in low are still grown, displaying the phenotypical resistance/susceptibility.
Race of Bacterial growth

Posted in: Doing Public Engagement

, , ,

Respond

  • (we won't publish this)

Write a response

Read next