2020 Small World in Motion Competition

Artboard 1

Honorable Mention

2020 Small World in Motion Competition

Herb (Tradescantia spathacea) leaf stoma (breathing pore) responding to CO2 and RH transients

Dr. Douglas Clark

Affiliation
Paedia Corporation
San Francisco, California, USA
Technique
Brightfield, Image Stacking
Magnification
50X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Clark, who works in engineering and scientific consulting, created this video of an herb leaf stoma (Tradescantia spathacea) responding to transient changes in CO2 levels and relative humidity (RH). This movie is actually a time-lapse spanning 250 minutes condensed down to 10 seconds. A sealed environmental chamber was built around the microscope in order to administer different light, temperatures, and gas concentrations to observe reactions of the subject. The live leaf stoma is shown breathing, with the various reactions stimulated by changes in CO2 mixes and RH. The images were processed using focus stacking in order to keep the entire image in focus, and morphing software to smooth frame to frame transitions. Koehler illumination was used.

Honorable Mention

2020 Small World in Motion Competition

The first 22 hours of zebrafish development (blood vessels shown in green)

Daniel Castranova Dr. Brant M. Weinstein

Affiliation
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
NICHD
Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Technique
Confocal
Magnification
4X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Daniel Castranova is a research technician at the NIH in Bethesda MD, and the Nikon Small World first place winner in the still imaging competition (Daniel is having a VERY good year). Mr. Castranova's winning Small World in Motion movie captures the first 22 hours of the development of a developing transgenic zebrafish embryo. This movie combined transmitted light and confocal imaging to beautifully illustrate the blood vessels developing from a single cell. He says that “keeping a fertilized egg alive, happy and oriented properly throughout early development requires both luck and skill” (we think the luck part bears a strong correlation to the skill part).

Honorable Mention

2020 Small World in Motion Competition

Cancer cell metastasis in a developing zebrafish embryo

Dr. Stephan Daetwyler Dr. Gloria Slattum, Dr. Jody Rosenblatt, Dr. Jan Huisken

Affiliation
UT Southwestern
Dallas, Texas, USA
Technique
Light Sheet
Magnification
10X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Daetwyler, a researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center and his collaborator, Dr. Gloria Slattum focus their work on epithelial cell biology. Their main interest in creation of this movie was a visualization and further understanding of dynamic processes in the development of disease, particularly cancer. In short, this movie is part of life-saving research to learn how cancer metastasis takes place. It illustrates how mutated genes in the zebrafish epidermis cause cancerous cells to be extruded and invade surrounding tissue. Imaging events such as this require cutting edge technology that calls on the latest developments in imaging, microscopy, sample care/preparation and data processing. These movies are often derived from data sets that are measured in terabytes (1 terabyte=1,000 Gigabytes) Cancer metastasis is the primary cause of cancer associated death. The knowledge gained from such research will translate directly to more effective ways of controlling this deadly aspect of the disease.