Welcome to the Visions of Discovery
Image Competition Website

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 competition:

1st Prize
Professor Sam Eljamel,
Centre for Neuroscience, Division of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing
Brain Tumour Imaging: A three-dimensional image of the human brain demonstrating a malignant brain tumour (green ball) surrounded by white matter fibres; motor fibres in red, sensory fibres in blue, connecting fibres in green and speech fibres in dark-green behind the tumour. This visualisation allowed removal of the tumour through a surgical corridor without affecting the patient’s speech, motor or sensory functions.

2nd Prize and Best PhD Student Image
Ehsan Pourkarimi,
Wellcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression, College of Life Sciences

Mitochondrial Net:. Three-dimensional image of mitochondria (cyan blue) and cell nuclei (red) in the early embryo of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, obtained using the super-resolution OMX microscope. Mitochondria function as cellular power plants and produce the energy needed for most cellular functions. 

 

3rd Prize Winner
Dr. Emma King
Light Microscopy Facility, College of Life Sciences
Mouse Gut Microvilli: Super-resolution image of microvilli, microtubules and nuclei in a section of mouse gut. Acquired using a structured illumination microscopy protocol (OMX microscope), this image reveals individual actin fibres, located in the centre of microvilli, that have been previously unresolvable by the light microscope (in collaboration with Dr Paul Appleton).

4th Prize Winner
Ana Agostinho,
Wellcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression, College of Life Sciences

Worm Cell Suicide: DNA damage-induced apoptosis (cell death) in the germ cells of the soil-dwelling nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. SIR-2.1 (green) is a nuclear protein that exits the nuclei of germ cells upon induced damage. CED-4 (red), a pro-apoptotic protein, is responsible for transmitting the signal to the effector caspase leading to apoptosis. Image obtained on a DeltaVision DV3 widefield deconvolution microscope.

5th Prize Winner
Daniel Hain
Division of Cell and Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences
Fruit Fly Embryos: Reconstruction of fruit fly embryos undergoing cellularization. Cellularization is used as a model to understand the regulation of cell division. The investigation of differences between wildtype (top) and mutants like drop out (bottom) will help to unravel aberrant gene function in cancer and other diseases.

 

Please feel free to visit the exhibition which is open to the public until Jan 2010.
Exhibition Location: Dalhousie Building Foyer (#14 on map)
Old Hawkhill. University of Dundee

 

Background to the Competition

This is the place to find out all about the 2009 Visions of Discovery Image Competition - a celebration of the beauty of images generated by biological and medical research.
This new competition stemmed from the success of the earlier Images of Medical Science competitions that ran in the Medical School.

This time the competition was open to all members of the College of Life Sciences and College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing at the University of Dundee.

Images must have reflect an aspect of research within the Colleges of Life Science and Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing. Entries will be judged on their aesthetic qualities, originality, informational content, technical proficiency, and visual impact.

Entries could be either single images or composites, colour or monochrome. Possible examples might include: micrographs illustrating cellular processes, time lapse montages, 3D computer rendering, molecular structures, images reflecting clinically oriented research, but this is by no means an exhaustive list. Imaginative and inventive means of communicating your research were definitely encouraged!

 

Our judges bring a range of perspectives based on their expertise in science communication, publishing, and the scientific image. They are:

Rose Taylor (Creative Director, Science Photo Library, London)

Dr. Ken Arnold (Head of Public Programmes, Wellcome Trust)

Dr. Bernd Pulverer (Editor, Nature Cell Biology)

Professor Anne Anderson OBE (Professor of Human Computer Interaction, Vice Principal and Head of College of Art, Science and Engineering, University of Dundee)

All entries will anonymised prior to judging.

So to the important bit - the prizes. We have been successful in raising increased sponsorship and this means the value of each prize has gone up from previous years. In addition to the cash prizes, this year, for the first time, we have the kind offer from Peqlab of a £300 conference travel bursary for the best image from a Ph.D student. Incidently, Ph.D students are eligible to win both this and one of the main prizes, so get going and start generating some winning images.

1. 1st Prize: £300 - the "Molecular Probes Prize"
1. 2nd Prize: £200
1. 3rd Prize: £150
1. 4th Prize: 1 year's online and print subscription to Nature Cell Biology (alternative sub'n option: 1 yr Lancet)
2. 12yr old Malt Whisky (from Thistle Scientific)
1. Special Peqlab Ph.D Student Travel Award: £300 (for conference attendance only!

Special Offers: A special 30% discount on any Molecular Probes AlexaFluor-labelled reagents is available for entrants. In addition BioSera Ltd and Labtech International Ltd have a special promotion in conjunction with the competition (see Sponsors page for more details).