2020 Photomicrography Competition

This is the second of three winning images from Jason Kirk in this year’s competition (see 7th place and his Image of Distinction). A professional microscopist and director of the Optical Imaging and Vital Microscopy Core facility at Baylor College of Medicine, Mr. Kirk took this image of neurons cultured from hippocampi of newly born mice. Note the level of detail and vast number of connections (dendritic spines) between these cells in this newly born specimen. This imaging is used in research of how certain proteins affect the development of dendritic spines.