Image and Video Gallery

This is a searchable collection of scientific photos, illustrations, and videos. The images and videos in this gallery are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike 3.0. This license lets you remix, tweak, and build upon this work non-commercially, as long as you credit and license your new creations under identical terms.

Ion channels

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The body uses a variety of ion channels to transport small molecules across cell membranes. Judith Stoffer View Media

A molecular interaction network in yeast 1

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The image visualizes a part of the yeast molecular interaction network. Keiichiro Ono, UCSD View Media

Fused, dicentric chromosomes

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This fused chromosome has two functional centromeres, shown as two sets of red and green dots. Beth A. Sullivan, Duke University View Media

Salivary gland in the developing fruit fly

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For fruit flies, the salivary gland is used to secrete materials for making the pupal case, the protective enclosure in which a larva transforms into an adult fly. Richard Fehon, University of Chicago View Media

Lysosomes and microtubules

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Lysosomes (yellow) and detyrosinated microtubules (light blue). Lysosomes are bubblelike organelles that take in molecules and use enzymes to break them down. Melike Lakadamyali, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. View Media

Tracking embryonic zebrafish cells

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To better understand cell movements in developing embryos, researchers isolated cells from early zebrafish embryos and grew them as clusters. Liliana Solnica-Krezel, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. View Media

Cells keep their shape with actin filaments and microtubules

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This image shows a normal fibroblast, a type of cell that is common in connective tissue and frequently studied in research labs. James J. Faust and David G. Capco, Arizona State University View Media

Natcher Building 01

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NIGMS staff are located in the Natcher Building on the NIH campus. Alisa Machalek, National Institute of General Medical Sciences View Media

ATP synthase (with labels)

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The world's smallest motor, ATP synthase, generates energy for the cell. See image 2517 for an unlabeled version of this illustration. Crabtree + Company View Media

Optic nerve astrocytes

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Astrocytes in the cross section of a human optic nerve head Tom Deerinck and Keunyoung (“Christine”) Kim, NCMIR View Media

Dynamic cryo-EM model of the human transcription preinitiation complex

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Gene transcription is a process by which information encoded in DNA is transcribed into RNA. Eva Nogales, Berkeley Lab View Media

Skin cross-section

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Cross-section of skin anatomy shows layers and different tissue types. National Institutes of Health Medical Arts View Media

Sleep and the fly brain

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In the top snapshots, the brain of a sleep-deprived fruit fly glows orange, marking high concentrations of a synaptic protein called Bruchpilot (BRP) involved in communication between neurons. Chiara Cirelli, University of Wisconsin-Madison View Media

Seeing signaling protein activation in cells 02

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Cdc42, a member of the Rho family of small guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) proteins, regulates multiple cell functions, including motility, proliferation, apoptosis, and cell morphology. Klaus Hahn, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Medical School View Media

Tiny strands of tubulin, a protein in a cell's skeleton

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Just as our bodies rely on bones for structural support, our cells rely on a cellular skeleton. Pakorn Kanchanawong, National University of Singapore and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health; and Clare Waterman, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health View Media

Mitosis - anaphase

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A cell in anaphase during mitosis: Chromosomes separate into two genetically identical groups and move to opposite ends of the spindle. Judith Stoffer View Media

Fruitful dyes

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These colorful, computer-generated ribbons show the backbone of a molecule that glows a fluorescent red. Roger Y. Tsien, University of California, San Diego View Media

Partial Model of a Cilium’s Doublet Microtubule

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Cilia (cilium in singular) are complex molecular machines found on many of our cells. Brown Lab, Harvard Medical School and Veronica Falconieri Hays. View Media

Single-Molecule Imaging

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This is a super-resolution light microscope image taken by Hiro Hakozaki and Masa Hoshijima of NCMIR. Tom Deerinck, NCMIR View Media

Bacteria working to eat

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Gram-negative bacteria perform molecular acrobatics just to eat. Because they're encased by two membranes, they must haul nutrients across both. Emad Tajkhorshid, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign View Media

Smooth muscle from human ES cells

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These smooth muscle cells were derived from human embryonic stem cells. The nuclei are stained blue, and the proteins of the cytoskeleton are stained green. Alexey Terskikh lab, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, via CIRM View Media

Brain showing hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease

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Along with blood vessels (red) and nerve cells (green), this mouse brain shows abnormal protein clumps known as plaques (blue). Alvin Gogineni, Genentech View Media

Dicer generates microRNAs

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The enzyme Dicer generates microRNAs by chopping larger RNA molecules into tiny Velcro^®-like pieces. MicroRNAs stick to mRNA molecules and prevent the mRNAs from being made into proteins. Crabtree + Company View Media

Fruit fly starvation leads to adipokine accumulation

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Adult Drosophila abdominal fat tissue showing cell nuclei labelled in magenta. Akhila Rajan, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center View Media

Network Map

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This network map shows the overlap (green) between the long QT syndrome (yellow) and epilepsy (blue) protein-interaction neighborhoods located within the human interactome. Seth Berger, Mount Sinai School of Medicine View Media

A bundle of myelinated peripheral nerve cells (axons)

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The extracellular matrix (ECM) is most prevalent in connective tissues but also is present between the stems (axons) of nerve cells. Tom Deerinck, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) View Media

Electrostatic map of the adeno-associated virus

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The new highly efficient parallelized DelPhi software was used to calculate the potential map distribution of an entire virus, the adeno-associated virus, which is made up of more than 484,000 atoms. Emil Alexov, Clemson University View Media

Ribosome illustration from PDB

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Ribosomes are complex machines made up of more than 50 proteins and three or four strands of genetic material called ribosomal RNA (rRNA). From PDB’s Molecule of the Month collection (direct link: http://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/121) Molecule of the Month illustrations are available under a CC-BY-4.0 license. Attribution should be given to David S. Goodsell and the RCSB PDB. View Media

Precisely Delivering Chemical Cargo to Cells

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Moving protein or other molecules to specific cells to treat or examine them has been a major biological challenge. Nature Nanotechnology View Media

Mouse Retina

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A genetic disorder of the nervous system, neurofibromatosis causes tumors to form on nerves throughout the body, including a type of tumor called an optic nerve glioma that can result in childhood bli Tom Deerinck, NCMIR View Media

Abnormal, spiky fibroblast

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This is a fibroblast, a connective tissue cell that plays an important role in wound healing. Normal fibroblasts have smooth edges. Praveen Suraneni, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, Mo. View Media

Structure of Glutamate Dehydrogenase

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Some children are born with a mutation in a regulatory site on this enzyme that causes them to over-secrete insulin when they consume protein. Judy Coyle, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center View Media

Human fibroblast undergoing cell division

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During cell division, cells physically divide after separating their genetic material to create two daughter cells that are genetically identical to the parent cell. Nilay Taneja, Vanderbilt University, and Dylan T. Burnette, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. View Media

Measles virus

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A cross section of the measles virus in which six proteins work together to infect cells. The measles virus is extremely infectious; 9 out of 10 people exposed will contract the disease. Amy Wu and Christine Zardecki, RCSB Protein Data Bank. View Media

Central dogma, illustrated (with labels and numbers for stages)

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DNA encodes RNA, which encodes protein. DNA is transcribed to make messenger RNA (mRNA). The mRNA sequence (dark red strand) is complementary to the DNA sequence (blue strand). Crabtree + Company View Media

Skin cell (keratinocyte)

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This normal human skin cell was treated with a growth factor that triggered the formation of specialized protein structures that enable the cell to move. Torsten Wittmann, University of California, San Francisco View Media

Crane fly spermatocyte undergoing meiosis

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A crane fly spermatocyte during metaphase of meiosis-I, a step in the production of sperm. Michael Shribak, Marine Biological Laboratory/University of Chicago. View Media

Color coding of the Drosophila brain - image

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This image results from a research project to visualize which regions of the adult fruit fly (Drosophila) brain derive from each neural stem cell. Yong Wan from Charles Hansen’s lab, University of Utah. Data preparation and visualization by Masayoshi Ito in the lab of Kei Ito, University of Tokyo. View Media

Motor neuron progenitors derived from human ES cells

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Motor neuron progenitors (green) were derived from human embryonic stem cells. Image and caption information courtesy of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Hans Keirstead lab, University of California, Irvine, via CIRM View Media

Colorful communication

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The marine bacterium Vibrio harveyi glows when near its kind. Bonnie Bassler, Princeton University View Media

Glowing glycans

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Sugars light up the cells in this jaw of a 3-day-old zebrafish embryo and highlight a scientific first: labeling and tracking the movements of sugar chains called glycans in a living organism. Carolyn Bertozzi, University of California, Berkeley View Media

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