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. Image and caption information courtesy of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

A light organ (~0.5 mm across) of a Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, stained blue. At the time of this image, the crypts within the tissues of only one side of the organ had been colonized by green-fluorescent protein-labeled Vibrio fischeri cells, which can be seen here in green. This image was taken using confocal fluorescence microscopy.

Related to images 7016, 7017, 7018, and 7019.

Two highly stressed osteosarcoma cells are shown with a set of green droplet-like structures followed by a second set of magenta droplets. These droplets are composed of fluorescently labeled stress-response proteins, either G3BP or UBQLN2 (Ubiquilin-2). Each protein is undergoing a fascinating process, called phase separation, in which a non-membrane bound compartment of the cytoplasm emerges with a distinct environment from the surrounding cytoplasm. Subsequently, the proteins fuse with like proteins to form larger droplets, in much the same way that raindrops merge on a car’s windshield.

Active site of E. coli response regulator PhoB.

Crystals of fungal lipase protein created for X-ray crystallography, which can reveal detailed, three-dimensional protein structures.

The cerebellum of a mouse is shown here in cross-section. The cerebellum is the brain's locomotion control center. Every time you shoot a basketball, tie your shoe or chop an onion, your cerebellum fires into action. Found at the base of your brain, the cerebellum is a single layer of tissue with deep folds like an accordion. People with damage to this region of the brain often have difficulty with balance, coordination and fine motor skills. For a higher magnification, see image 3371.

This image was part of the Life: Magnified exhibit that ran from June 3, 2014, to January 21, 2015, at Dulles International Airport.

Floral pattern emerging as two bacterial species, motile Acinetobacter baylyi and non-motile Escherichia coli (green), are grown together for 24 hours on 0.75% agar surface from a small inoculum in the center of a Petri dish.

See 6553 for a photo of this process at 48 hours on 1% agar surface.
See 6555 for another photo of this process at 48 hours on 1% agar surface.
See 6556 for a photo of this process at 72 hours on 0.5% agar surface.
See 6550 for a video of this process.

A cropped image of a white poppy. View poppy uncropped here 3424.

A 3D reconstruction, created using cryo-electron microscopy, of an ion channel known as the full-length serotonin receptor in complex with the antinausea drug granisetron (orange). Ion channels are proteins in cell membranes that help regulate many processes.

Time lapse series shows short dynamin assemblies (not visible) constricting a lipid tube to make a "beads on a string" appearance, then cutting off one of the beads i.e., catalyzing membrane fission). The lipids are fluorescent (artificially colored). Ramachandran R, Pucadyil T.J., Liu Y.W., Acharya S., Leonard M., Lukiyanchuk V., Schmid S.L. 2009. Membrane insertion of the pleckstrin homology domain variable loop 1 is critical for dynamin-catalyzed vesicle scission. Mol Biol Cell. 2009 20:4630-9.

The molecule on the left is an electrostatic potential map of the van der Waals surface of the transition state for human purine nucleoside phosphorylase. The colors indicate the electron density at any position of the molecule. Red indicates electron-rich regions with negative charge and blue indicates electron-poor regions with positive charge. The molecule on the right is called DADMe-ImmH. It is a chemically stable analogue of the transition state on the left. It binds to the enzyme millions of times tighter than the substrate. This inhibitor is in human clinical trials for treating patients with gout. This image appears in Figure 4, Schramm, V.L. (2011) Annu. Rev. Biochem. 80:703-732.

A cell in anaphase during mitosis: Chromosomes separate into two genetically identical groups and move to opposite ends of the spindle. Mitosis is responsible for growth and development, as well as for replacing injured or worn out cells throughout the body. For simplicity, mitosis is illustrated here with only six chromosomes.

A number of environmental factors cause DNA mutations that can lead to cancer: toxins in cigarette smoke, sunlight and other radiation, and some viruses.

Using a supercomputer to simulate the movement of atoms in a ribosome, researchers looked into the core of this protein-making nanomachine and took snapshots. The picture shows an amino acid (green) being delivered by transfer RNA (yellow) into a corridor (purple) in the ribosome. In the corridor, a series of chemical reactions will string together amino acids to make a protein. The research project, which tracked the movement of more than 2.6 million atoms, was the largest computer simulation of a biological structure to date. The results shed light on the manufacturing of proteins and could aid the search for new antibiotics, which typically work by disabling the ribosomes of bacteria.

These cells get their name from the hairlike structures that extend from them into the fluid-filled tube of the inner ear. When sound reaches the ear, the hairs bend and the cells convert this movement into signals that are relayed to the brain. When we pump up the music in our cars or join tens of thousands of cheering fans at a football stadium, the noise can make the hairs bend so far that they actually break, resulting in long-term hearing loss.

This image was part of the Life: Magnified exhibit that ran from June 3, 2014, to January 21, 2015, at Dulles International Airport.

A peripheral nerve cell made from human embryonic stem cell-derived neural crest stem cells. The nucleus is shown in blue, and nerve cell proteins peripherin and beta-tubulin (Tuj1) are shown in green and red, respectively. Related to image 3263.

Industrious V. cholerae bacteria (yellow) tend to thrive in denser biofilms (left) while moochers (red) thrive in weaker biofilms (right). More information about the research behind this image can be found in a Biomedical Beat Blog posting from February 2014.

Here, bubonic plague bacteria (yellow) are shown in the digestive system of a rat flea (purple). The bubonic plague killed a third of Europeans in the mid-14th century. Today, it is still active in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, with as many as 2,000 people infected worldwide each year. If caught early, bubonic plague can be treated with antibiotics.

This image was part of the Life: Magnified exhibit that ran from June 3, 2014, to January 21, 2015, at Dulles International Airport.

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. We depend on cell movement for such basic functions as wound healing and launching an immune response.

This image was part of the Life: Magnified exhibit that ran from June 3, 2014, to January 21, 2015, at Dulles International Airport.

New research shows telomeres moving to the outer edge of the nucleus after cell division, suggesting these caps that protect chromosomes also may play a role in organizing DNA.

These vials may look like they're filled with colored water, but they really contain nanocrystals reflecting different colors under ultraviolet light. The tiny crystals, made of semiconducting compounds, are called quantum dots. Depending on their size, the dots emit different colors that let scientists use them as a tool for detecting particular genes, proteins, and other biological molecules.

Jon Lorsch at his swearing in as NIGMS director in August 2013. Also shown are Francis Collins, NIH Director, and Judith Greenberg, former NIGMS Acting Director.

The microtubule severing protein, katanin, localizes to chromosomes and regulates anaphase A in mitosis. The movement of chromosomes on the mitotic spindle requires the depolymerization of microtubule ends. The figure shows the mitotic localization of the microtubule severing protein katanin (green) relative to spindle microtubules (red) and kinetochores/chromosomes (blue). Katanin targets to chromosomes during both metaphase (top) and anaphase (bottom) and is responsible for inducing the depolymerization of attached microtubule plus-ends. This image was a finalist in the 2008 Drosophila Image Award.

Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (blue) on the porous coating of a femoral hip stem used in hip replacement surgery. The relatively rough surface of an implant is a favorable environment for bacteria to attach and grow. This can lead to the development of biofilms, which can cause infections. The researchers who took this image are working to understand where biofilms are likely to develop. This knowledge could support the prevention and treatment of infections. A scanning electron microscope was used to capture this image.

More information on the research that produced this image can be found in the Antibiotics paper "Free-floating aggregate and single-cell-initiated biofilms of Staphylococcus aureus" by Gupta et al.

Related to image 6803 and video 6805.

The proteasome is a critical multiprotein complex in the cell that breaks down and recycles proteins that have become damaged or are no longer needed. This illustration shows a protein substrate (red) that is bound through its ubiquitin chain (blue) to one of the ubiquitin receptors of the proteasome (Rpn10, yellow). The substrate's flexible engagement region gets engaged by the AAA+ motor of the proteasome (cyan), which initiates mechanical pulling, unfolding and movement of the protein into the proteasome's interior for cleavage into small shorter protein pieces called peptides. During movement of the substrate, its ubiquitin modification gets cleaved off by the deubiquitinase Rpn11 (green), which sits directly above the entrance to the AAA+ motor pore and acts as a gatekeeper to ensure efficient ubiquitin removal, a prerequisite for fast protein breakdown by the 26S proteasome. Related to video 3764.

Collecting and transporting cellular waste and sorting it into recylable and nonrecylable pieces is a complex business in the cell. One key player in that process is the endosome, which helps collect, sort and transport worn-out or leftover proteins with the help of a protein assembly called the endosomal sorting complexes for transport (or ESCRT for short). These complexes help package proteins marked for breakdown into intralumenal vesicles, which, in turn, are enclosed in multivesicular bodies for transport to the places where the proteins are recycled or dumped. In this image, two multivesicular bodies (with yellow membranes) contain tiny intralumenal vesicles (with a diameter of only 25 nanometers; shown in red) adjacent to the cell's vacuole (in orange).

Scientists working with baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) study the budding inward of the limiting membrane (green lines on top of the yellow lines) into the intralumenal vesicles. This tomogram was shot with a Tecnai F-20 high-energy electron microscope, at 29,000x magnification, with a 0.7-nm pixel, ~4-nm resolution.

To learn more about endosomes, see the Biomedical Beat blog post The Cell’s Mailroom. Related to a microscopy photograph 5768 that was used to generate this illustration and a zoomed-out version 5769 of this illustration.

Scientists use nuclear magnetic spectroscopy (NMR) to determine the detailed, 3D structures of molecules.

Elastin is a fibrous protein in the extracellular matrix (ECM). It is abundant in artery walls like the one shown here. As its name indicates, elastin confers elasticity. Elastin fibers are at least five times stretchier than rubber bands of the same size. Tissues that expand, such as blood vessels and lungs, need to be both strong and elastic, so they contain both collagen (another ECM protein) and elastin. In this photo, the elastin-rich ECM is colored grayish brown and is most visible at the bottom of the photo. The curved red structures near the top of the image are red blood cells.

The nucleolinus is a cellular compartment that has been a lonely bystander in scientific endeavors. Although it's found in a range of species, its function has been mysterious—mainly because the structure is hard to visualize. An August 2010 study showed that the nucleolinus is crucial for cell division. When researchers zapped the structure with a laser, an egg cell didn't complete division. When the oocyte was fertilized after laser microsurgery (bottom right), the resulting zygote didn't form vital cell division structures (blue and yellow).

Vibrio, a type (genus) of rod-shaped bacteria. Some Vibrio species cause cholera in humans.

Neutrophil-like cells (blue) in a microfluidic chip preferentially migrating toward LTB4 over fMLP. A neutrophil is a type of white blood cell that is part of the immune system and helps the body fight infection. Both LTB4 and fMLP are molecules involved in immune response. Microfluidic chips are small devices containing microscopic channels, and they are used in a range of applications, from basic research on cells to pathogen detection. The scale bar in this video is 500μm.

Cell division is an incredibly coordinated process. It not only ensures that the new cells formed during this event have a full set of chromosomes, but also that they are endowed with all the cellular materials, including proteins, lipids and small functional compartments called organelles, that are required for normal cell activity. This proper apportioning of essential cell ingredients helps each cell get off to a running start.

This image shows an electron microscopy (EM) thin section taken at 10,000x magnification of a dividing yeast cell over-expressing the protein ubiquitin, which is involved in protein degradation and recycling. The picture features mother and daughter endosome accumulations (small organelles with internal vesicles), a darkly stained vacuole and a dividing nucleus in close contact with a cadre of lipid droplets (unstained spherical bodies).  Other dynamic events are also visible,  such as spindle microtubules in the nucleus and endocytic pits at the plasma membrane.

These extensive details were revealed thanks to a preservation method involving high-pressure freezing, freeze-substitution and Lowicryl HM20 embedding.

These time series show the heart rates of four different individuals. Automakers use steel scraps to build cars, construction companies repurpose tires to lay running tracks, and now scientists are reusing previously discarded medical data to better understand our complex physiology. Through a website called PhysioNet developed in part by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center cardiologist Ary Goldberger, scientists can access complete physiologic recordings, such as heart rate, respiration, brain activity and gait. They then can use free software to analyze the data and find patterns in it. The patterns could ultimately help health care professionals diagnose and treat health conditions like congestive heart failure, sleeping disorders, epilepsy and walking problems. PhysioNet is supported by NIH's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering as well as by NIGMS.

Acetylsalicylate (bottom) is the aspirin of today. Adding a chemical tag called an acetyl group (shaded box, bottom) to a molecule derived from willow bark (salicylate, top) makes the molecule less acidic (and easier on the lining of the digestive tract), but still effective at relieving pain. See image 2529 for an unlabeled version of this illustration. Featured in Medicines By Design.

The world's smallest motor, ATP synthase, generates energy for the cell. See image 2517 for an unlabeled version of this illustration. Featured in The Chemistry of Health.

Some nerve cells (neurons) in the brain keep track of the daily cycle. This time-keeping mechanism, called the circadian clock, is found in all animals including us. The circadian clock controls our daily activities such as sleep and wakefulness. Researchers are interested in finding the neuron circuits involved in this time keeping and how the information about daily time in the brain is relayed to the rest of the body. In this image of a brain of the fruit fly Drosophila the time-of-day information flowing through the brain has been visualized by staining the neurons involved: clock neurons (shown in blue) function as "pacemakers" by communicating with neurons that produce a short protein called leucokinin (LK) (red), which, in turn, relays the time signal to other neurons, called LK-R neurons (green). This signaling cascade set in motion by the pacemaker neurons helps synchronize the fly's daily activity with the 24-hour cycle. To learn more about what scientists have found out about circadian pacemaker neurons in the fruit fly see this news release by New York University. This work was featured in the Biomedical Beat blog post Cool Image: A Circadian Circuit.

Stereo triplet of a sea urchin embryo stained to reveal actin filaments (orange) and microtubules (blue). This image is part of a series of images: 1047, 1048, 1050, 1051 and 1052.

This image captures Purkinje cells (red), one of the main types of nerve cell found in the brain. These cells have elaborate branching structures called dendrites that receive signals from other nerve cells.

This image was part of the Life: Magnified exhibit that ran from June 3, 2014, to January 21, 2015, at Dulles International Airport.

Hippocampal cells in culture with a neuron in green, showing hundreds of the small protrusions known as dendritic spines. The dendrites of other neurons are labeled in blue, and adjacent glial cells are shown in red.

Centrioles (green) anchor cilia (red), which project on the surface of pharynx cells of the freshwater planarian Schmidtea mediterranea. Centrioles require cellular structures called centrosomes for assembly in other animal species, but this flatworm known for its regenerative ability was unexpectedly found to lack centrosomes. From a Stowers University news release.

HIV is a retrovirus, a type of virus that carries its genetic material not as DNA but as RNA. Long before anyone had heard of HIV, researchers in labs all over the world studied retroviruses, tracing out their life cycle and identifying the key proteins the viruses use to infect cells. When HIV was identified as a retrovirus, these studies gave AIDS researchers an immediate jump-start. The previously identified viral proteins became initial drug targets. See images 2513 and 2515 for other versions of this illustration. Featured in The Structures of Life.

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. For scientists, this gland provided one of the earliest glimpses into the genetic differences between individuals within a species. Chromosomes in the cells of these salivary glands replicate thousands of times without dividing, becoming so huge that scientists can easily view them under a microscope and see differences in genetic content between individuals.

This image was part of the Life: Magnified exhibit that ran from June 3, 2014, to January 21, 2015, at Dulles International Airport.

This fused chromosome has two functional centromeres, shown as two sets of red and green dots. Centromeres are DNA/protein complexes that are key to splitting the chromosomes evenly during cell division. When dicentric chromosomes like this one are formed in a person, fertility problems or other difficulties may arise. Normal chromosomes carrying a single centromere (one set of red and green dots) are also visible in this image.

A computer-generated sketch of a DNA origami folded into a flower-and-bird structure. See also related image 3690.

Three C. elegans, tiny roundworms, with a ribosomal protein glowing red and muscle fibers glowing green. Researchers used these worms to study a molecular pathway that affects aging. The ribosomal protein is involved in protein translation and may play a role in dietary restriction-induced longevity. Image created using confocal microscopy.
View single roundworm here 6581.
View closeup of roundworms here 6583.

NIGMS staff are located in the Natcher Building on the NIH campus.

Scientists revealed a detailed image of the genetic defect that causes myotonic dystrophy type 2 and used that information to design drug candidates to counteract the disease.

Serum albumin (SA) is the most abundant protein in the blood plasma of mammals. SA has a characteristic heart-shape structure and is a highly versatile protein. It helps maintain normal water levels in our tissues and carries almost half of all calcium ions in human blood. SA also transports some hormones, nutrients and metals throughout the bloodstream. Despite being very similar to our own SA, those from other animals can cause some mild allergies in people. Therefore, some scientists study SAs from humans and other mammals to learn more about what subtle structural or other differences cause immune responses in the body.

Related to entries 3744 and 3745.

Anaphase is the critical step during mitosis when sister chromosomes are disjoined and directed to opposite spindle poles, ensuring equal distribution of the genome during cell division. In this image, one pair of sister chromosomes at the top was lost and failed to divide after chemical inhibition of polo-like kinase 1. This image depicts chromosomes (blue) separating away from the spindle mid-zone (red). Kinetochores (green) highlight impaired movement of some chromosomes away from the mid-zone or the failure of sister chromatid separation (top). Scientists are interested in detailing the signaling events that are disrupted to produce this effect. The image is a volume projection of multiple deconvolved z-planes acquired with a Nikon widefield fluorescence microscope.

This image was chosen as a winner of the 2016 NIH-funded research image call. The research that led to this image was funded by NIGMS.

Related to image 5765.

Related to image 6355.