nigms_nih

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National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of NIH. Supporting biomedical research, training & infrastructure. Privacy: ow.ly/4jou309MYna nigms.nih.gov
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Fireworks bursting midair on a July 4th night? Not quite--it’s pyrotechnics at the cellular level (sound effects added). Scientists studying microtubules shot this video to see whether their experimental setup was working. Then they entered it into Princeton’s 2017 Art of Science exhibit. To learn more, read the NIH Director’s blog post at http://bit.ly/2toRwcG. #science #biology #research #nigms #scienceisbeautiful #sciart #nih #nihfunded #biomedical #microscopy #videos #animations
Video
Proposed design for the 2018 World Cup soccer match ball? Nope. This image is actually an atomic-scale model of a virus (bacteriophage P22) that infects the Salmonella bacterium. Like a soccer ball, it combines hexagonal (six-sided) and pentagonal (five-sided) units. Scientists used new computational methods to construct the model from more than 20,000 cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) images. For more details, check out our Biomedical Beat blog article titled “Researchers Score Goal with New Atomic-Scale Model of Salmonella-Infecting Virus.” Credit: C. Hryc in the Wah Chiu lab, Baylor College of Medicine #science #biology #research #nigms#scienceisbeautiful #sciart #nih #nihfunded #biomedical #microscopy, #cryoem #imaging #electronmicroscopy #virus #virology #microbiology
Sea urchins are a familiar sight to beachcombers poking along a rocky shoreline at low tide. Did you know that some species found along the Pacific coast may live to be 100 years old? No matter how long they live—a mere 4 years, like the variegated sea urchin shown here, or decades longer—the creatures are able to reproduce and regrow damaged body parts their whole lives. Humans and most other animals lack this ability. What contributes to the sea urchins’ fountain-of-youth characteristics? Researchers are studying them to find out, including the role of the immune system in maintaining youthful function as they age. Check out our blog article, "Sea Urchin Regeneration May Help Us Understand Aging." Credit: Helena Reinardy, Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences #MDIBL #NIHfunded #basicresearch #nigms #modelorganisms #seaurchin
Like a colorful fiber-optic network, this microscopic layer from a mouse’s eye relays information from the retina to the brain. Retinal ganglion neurons (orange) and their associated optic nerve fibers (red) are overlaid with blood vessels (blue) and spidery glial cells (green). By comparing detailed images of healthy eye tissues with similar images of a diseased eye, researchers can learn about changes in biology that occur as eye diseases develop. Credit: National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California, San Diego. #science #biology #research #nigms #scienceisbeautiful #sciart #healthyvisionmonth #microscopy #retina #retinalimage #nih #nihfunded #BasicResearch #eyeresearch #biomedical #microscopyart
What appears as a tree branch painstakingly wrapped in green wire is a microscopic blood vessel from the retina at the back of a mouse eye. These vessels can help diagnose conditions such as glaucoma and diabetic eye disease. The vessels also have a characteristic appearance in people with high blood pressure. This detailed image was created to help scientists understand what happens in a genetic disease called neurofibromatosis, in which tumors begin to form on nerve tissue. Credit: National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California, San Diego. #science #biology #research #nigms #scienceisbeautiful #sciart #healthyvisionmonth #microscopy #retina #retinalimage #nih #nihfunded #BasicResearch #eyeresearch #biomedical #microscopyart
This burst of starry points is actually part of the retina from a mouse eye. The image comes from a research project investigating the promise of gene therapy for glaucoma. Untreated glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness. The disease is characterized by the death of cells called retinal ganglion cells. Scientists are hoping to deliver gene therapy to these cells as a treatment for glaucoma. In this photo, a fluorescent protein (GFP) lights up as a beacon to show the location of retinal ganglion cells—and to reveal how well the proposed gene therapy technique might work. Credit: Kenyoung Kim, Wonkyu Ju and Mark Ellisman, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California, San Diego. #science #biology #research #nigms #scienceisbeautiful #sciart #healthyvisionmonth #microscopy #retina #retinalimage #nih #nihfunded #BasicResearch #eyeresearch #biomedical #microscopyart
Eyes are beautiful, and they take on a whole new look in this agate-like image, which highlights just how complex mammalian eyes really are. Researchers used staining and imaging techniques to turn each of the 70+ cell types in this mouse eye a different color. The image won first place in the 2011 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. Happy Health Vision Month! Credit: Bryan William Jones, University of Utah Moran Eye Center #science #biology #research #nigms #scienceisbeautiful #sciart #nihfunded #biomedical #microscopy #healthyvisionmonth #imaging #microscopyart #eyeresearch
Flash! Flash! Each spark shows a nerve cell firing. This video, which won the 2016 FASEB BioArt contest, captures a brain in action. The scientists who created the video—Caitlin Vander Weele and Kay M. Tye—are studying brain circuitry and how it affects behavior. They use a small, head-mounted mini-microscope to see brain cell activity in mice as the animals scurry around, eat, drink, gnaw and engage in other rodent activities. Credit: Caitlin Vander Weele and Kay M. Tye, Massachusetts Institute of Technology #science #biology #research #nigms #scienceisbeautiful #sciart #nih #FASEB #FASEBBioArt #BioArt #nihfunded #biomedical #microscopy #videos #animation #neuroscience #neurobiology #brain #brains #brainimages #neuroanatomy
Video
Why do anti-HIV drugs work differently in different people? Can we personalize HIV treatment and prevention? How did you become a researcher? On April 5 from 2-3 pm, you can hear those questions answered by Dr. Bumpus. And get involved—send in questions by Friday, March 31. In the Q&A at the end of her talk, Dr. Bumpus will answer questions about her research and career. Info on how to watch the lecture live (or later), more on Dr. Bumpus’s research & how to send in questions is at http://ow.ly/Sn3a30acxof . #science #biology #research #nigms #nih #nihfunded #hiv #hivvirus #virus #virology #epidemic #epidemiology #microbiology #genomesequencing #publichealth #undergrad #undergradresearch #undergraduate #pharmacology #pharmacogenomics #johnshopkins #johnshopkinsuniversity #baltimore #maryland #womeninmedicine #womeninscience #womeninstem
What you’re seeing is small and green, but definitely not lucky, even on St. Patty’s Day. Anthrax bacteria (green) are being enveloped by an immune system cell (purple). Anthrax bacteria live in soil and form dormant spores that can survive for decades. When animals eat or inhale these spores, the bacteria activate and rapidly increase in number. Today, a highly effective and widely used vaccine has made the disease uncommon in domesticated animals and rare in humans. Credit: Camenzind G. Robinson, Sarah Guilman and Arthur Friedlander, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases http://ow.ly/H7J030a104Mhttp://ow.ly/h6ne30a106y #science #biology #research #nigms #scienceisbeautiful #sciart #nih #BioArt #nihfunded #biomedical #microscopy # #photomicrograph #infectiousdisease #infectiousdiseases #artunderthemicroscope #lifemagnified
Congratulations to all the winners of the inaugural Open Science Prize! The international team that won the grand prize—and $230,000—developed a prototype computational tool called nextstrain that tracks the spread of emerging viruses (think Ebola, Zika). Nextstrain is open-source, available free-of-charge worldwide. Scientists or public health officials can upload the genome sequences of viruses circulating in their vicinity, then nextstrain will analyze the data and display the results on an interactive, public website. The image here shows the nextstrain analysis of how the Zika virus genome spread and evolved in 25 countries over the past few years. Nextstrain developers include NIGMS grantee Trevor Bedford of the of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. The Open Science Prize, a collaboration between NIH, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Wellcome Trust in the UK, aims “to unleash the power of open content and data to advance biomedical research and its application for health benefit.” More info at https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/open-science-prize-announces-epidemic-tracking-tool-grand-prize-winner. #science #biology #research #nigms #nih #nihfunded #zika #zikavirus #virus #ebola #virology #epidemic #epidemiology #microbiology #genomesequencing #opensource #openscience #publichealth #wellcometrust #hhmi
Scientists have long suspected that as your body sleeps, your brain works hard. Now they have photographic evidence. Using a cutting-edge microscopy technique, researchers studied projections called dendritic spines on the nerve cells of mice. Spines (knobby bumps in this 3D image of mouse nerve cells) allow messages to spread from one nerve cell to another, which is basically how the nervous system (of mice and humans) works. The researchers found that after mice had slept, the volume of their spines decreased significantly, and the message-passing spaces (synapses) between spines and neighboring nerve cells went down by 18%. The scientists suspect that this scale-back of neural connections during sleep is akin to pruning unneeded memories and associations in order to start fresh upon awaking. Interestingly, not all spines shrunk equally. The larger spines were often spared while smaller, weaker ones were cut away. Stay tuned as the research unfolds. Investigation by Chiara Cirelli and Giulio Tononi, University of Wisconsin-Madison. #science #biology #research #nigms #scienceisbeautiful #nih #nihfunded #biomedical #microscopy #brain #neuroscience #synapse #sleep
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