2012 Small World In Motion Competition

Artboard 1

3rd Place

2012 Small World In Motion Competition

Complexity of ureteric bud branching and nephron formation

Dr. Nils Lindström

Affiliation
University of Edinburgh
The Roslin Institute
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Technique

Time-lapse, inverted fluorescent microscope, organ culture, transgenic mouse reporter lines

Magnifaction
0

Illustrating the development of live kidney cells, specifically a metanephric kidney that has been cultured in vitro and imaged over 4 days. The fluorescence originates from a conditional YFP reporter, which is only activated in cells expressing Pax8. The fluorescent cells belong to the ureteric bud (the tree), the induced nephron progenitors cell (cells around the tree tips) and nephrons that are forming (the shapes forming within the tree). The YFP signal is viewed using a heat-map that has been overlaid onto the bright-field channel.