Images

This Bovine Pulmonary Artery Endothelial (BPAE) cell is stained to show two components of the cytoskeleton – microtubules in green, and actin filaments in red (in the top right panel). The cell is a crowded place, so one of the functions of the…

The plume-like shape of these Bovine Pulmonary Artery Epithelial (BPAE) cells is characteristic of cell motility. Although cells that make up your tissues and organs are typically stationary throughout adult life, there are many reasons a cell may need…

  Gene therapy is an approach to treating disease that uses genetic information—DNA—as a drug. Monogenic diseases, where a single genetic mutation results in a nonfunctional protein and disease-causing agent, are excellent candidates for treatment…

Today’s image comes from this week’s Spring Seminar speaker, Shay Neufeld. This is a part of the brain called the striatum – a nucleus important for the learning and execution of coordinated, voluntary behaviors. Labelled in green are…

The black fibers seen in this image are tubulin, a protein that makes up a large part of the cytoskeleton of all cells. The cytoskeleton provides structural support for the cell, and tubulin also performs specific functions such as the mitotic spindle.…

This is an image of a small artery in a mouse eyelid that has formed a thrombus (blood clot). When a blood vessel is damaged, chemicals that attract platelets are released from the site of injury. Platelets in the flowing blood stick to the site, and in…

Image by Don W. Pottle This is an image of crystals of aspirin with caffeine.   An Excedrin tablet was crushed in water and allowed to dissolve.   Drops of the solution were placed on a glass microscope slide and allowed to dry.  Examining and…

The sequence of DNA bases found within our chromosomes serves as the instruction manual of life. Prior to cell division, this genetic information is accurately copied by a complex of different enzymes known collectively as the replisome. An essential…

The finger-like mound of cells in the central portion of this micrograph is an intestinal villus. The single layer of cells on its surface is the only barrier between the contents of the gut lumen and the inside of the body. The major job of these…

In all animals, the mother fills the egg with all the proteins and mRNAs necessary for early development. In Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies), when one of these genes is missing, it can lead to severe malformations in the larval exoskeleton. The top…