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2012 Bio-Art Competition Winners
The first - ever Bio - Art contention honored 10 range of a function that are visually hold back and that illustrate a cut - bound concept in biomedical inquiry .
Scaffold for Cartilage Regeneration
Due to a lack of blood vessels and other characteristics , cartilage heals very slowly . One way to accelerate natural gristle stamping ground and growing is to use tissue engineering , or the artificially - make production of usable successor tissue . The image shows a three - dimensionally woven biomaterial scaffold . The scaffold consists of multiple layers of resorbable character big money that have been woven into a poriferous structure . The scaffold is then sow with cells that farm to become newfangled tissue as the fibers are reabsorb . The fibers provide stiffness and effectiveness in a fashion that mime aboriginal collagenous tissues such as gristle . This oeuvre to expend tissue engineering to generate replacement cartilage is supported by NIH funding from the National Institutes of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases .
Muscle Stem Cell Factories
This micrograph read cellular phone called myoblasts attached to global microcarriers , which appropriate the growth of adult fore cells that have been isolated from wasted muscle . The stem cells are depict in immature . By combining these cell in a bioreactor , the musculus stem cellphone can be greatly increased in issue and then separated from the myoblast “ feeder ” prison cell . The simulacrum was grow in the course of study aimed at make unreal “ fore cubicle factories ” and was supported by NIH backing from the National Heart , Lung and Blood Institute .
Electricity from Fish
Closely relate galvanising fish mintage from the Okano River of Gabon , collected in the neighbourhood of the abandoned Fang village , “ Na . ” Each species is show along with a recording of its electric electronic organ discharge , which these fish use to pass with one another and electro - locate prey , much like bats use echolocation . Electric fish discern other members of their own species using the species - specific waveforms of these pulse - alike discharges . NIH funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences allows Arnegard and colleagues to investigate how this electrical variability is due to some of the same genetical mutations that , in homo , head to inborn heart blemish and childhood epilepsy .
Seeing Capillary Cells
Visualizing the smallest biological structures has traditionally required the use of extremely specialized electron microscopy equipment . Using a combination of genetic - found labeling and a variety of fluorescent proteins , researchers have developed a way to crowd the limits of the lightheaded microscope to reckon the smallest of biologic structures . The image shows foot process of genetically labeled cells ( red ) covering wall of capillaries ( greenish ) in a kidney of a mouse . This workplace is supported by the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases .
Coping with Good Gut Bacteria
The ascendancy of seditious responses in the enteric liner is critical to the bar of undesirable immune reactions to the “ good bacterium ” in the catgut . Expressed on the open of the prison cell of the intestine , the single IgG IL-1 - link receptor ( Sigirr ) is a key regulator of this process . tissue paper from a colon biopsy stain for Sigirr and other cellular component is picture . remedial targeting of Sigirr could be useful in the intervention of inflammatory bowel disease or other incitive disorders of the GI parcel .
Understanding Glaucoma
The persona features face fibers ( blue ) and their attendant microglia ( green ) , the cells responsible for immune defense in the central flighty organisation , as the fibre converge to work the optic nerve in a shiner retina . In glaucoma , the retina and optic boldness experience neurodegeneration that have blindness . investigator have give away that sneak retinal microglia undergo changes forgo irreversible neuronal decline and destruction . Similar changes may take place in humanity . By detecting and tracking the bodily process of microglia , investigator place to identify and target early pathways underlying the attack of glaucoma . This research to further the development of more efficacious treatments to diagnose and slow glaucoma is patronage by NIH funding from the National Eye Institute .
Study of Limb Development
( Top ) This is a limb from a transgenic , embryonic mouse , showing well established musculoskeletal and nervous organisation . The arm is stain with a kind of technique to differentiate brawn , tendon , osseous tissue , and heart , and render into a three - dimensional image using FluoRender , a publicly available rendering programme develop at the University of Utah . ( Bottom ) This is a model , derived from the upper dialog box double , read muscle , tendon , ivory , and nerves . This model is part of a collaborative elbow grease between geneticists and computer scientist to modernise a 3 - dimensional interactive telamon of limb exploitation . NIH funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development support this effort .
Brain, Heart, and Lung Communication
Both glutamate and nitric oxide fiddle an important role in transmitting cardiovascular and respiratory signals between the nous , heart , and lung . This butterfly shaped figure is an image of a crumb spinal corduroy shew the distribution of three types of glutamate and nitric oxide synthesizing enzymes . Understanding the military action and interaction of glutamate and nitric oxide in the anxious system could lead to better treatments for cardiovascular disease such as hypertension and meat failure . This piece of work is supported by NIH backing from the National Heart , Lung and Blood Institute .
Production of New Neurons
New neuron are produced from neuronal root cells in several area of the adult brain . One such surface area is in the hippocampus , a brain structure of the essence for cognitive function . The number of neuronal stem cell in the genus Hippocampus decreases over time , peradventure contributing to the cognitive deterioration associated with aging . When activate by extrinsic stimuli , stem cells divide and generate progenitor cells , which eventually mature into neurons and migrate into the layer above , whereas stem cells themselves undergo additional rhythm of speedy divisions and change over into astrocytes , thus leaving the stem turn cubicle puddle . The mental image picture stem cells ( green ) and neuronal nucleus ( ruby ) . This inquiry to realise how the brainiac produces raw neurons is supported by NIH through the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Aging .
Skin Cells Produce Nerve Cells & Psychiatric Insights
The study of induced pluripotent stem ( iPS ) cell - derived neurons is a promising unexampled access to understanding the molecular and cellular underpinnings of schizophrenia , bipolar disorderliness , and other psychiatrical disease . Researchers are investigating the disease biology of psychiatric disorders by reprogramming patient skin jail cell to iPS cells and then generating alive neuronic cells with the patients ' transmitted make-up . This look-alike shows a culture of differentiated neural cells ( green ) and neural primogenitor cells ( crimson ) , with the nuclei of the cells in blue . This enquiry is put up by NIH through the National Institute of Mental Health .
