On the left, a cross-section slice of a rat pancreas cell captured using cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET). On the right, a color-coded, 3D version of the image highlighting cell structures. Visible features include insulin vesicles (purple rings), insulin crystals (gray circles), microtubules (green rods), ribosomes (small yellow circles). The black line at the bottom right of the left image represents 200 nm. Related to image 6608.

Microtubules in African green monkey cells. Microtubules are strong, hollow fibers that provide cells with structural support. Here, the microtubules have been color-coded based on their distance from the microscope lens: purple is closest to the lens, and yellow is farthest away. This image was captured using Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM).

Related to images 6889, 6890, and 6892.

To develop a system for studying cell motility in unnatrual conditions -- a microscope slide instead of the body -- Tom Roberts and Katsuya Shimabukuro at Florida State University disassembled and reconstituted the motility parts used by worm sperm cells.

Fruit fly sperm cells glow bright green when they express the gene for green fluorescent protein (GFP).

Phenylalanine tRNA showing the anticodon (yellow) and the amino acid, phenylalanine (blue and red spheres).

Duplicated pair of chromosomes lined up and ready to cross over.

A light microscope image of a cell from the endosperm of an African globe lily (Scadoxus katherinae). This is one frame of a time-lapse sequence that shows cell division in action. The lily is considered a good organism for studying cell division because its chromosomes are much thicker and easier to see than human ones. Staining shows microtubules in red and chromosomes in blue. Here, condensed chromosomes are clearly visible and are starting to separate to form two new cells.

Bioengineers were able to coax bacteria to blink in unison on microfluidic chips. They called each blinking bacterial colony a biopixel. Thousands of fluorescent E. coli bacteria, shown here, make up a biopixel. Related to images 3265 and 3266. From a UC San Diego news release, "Researchers create living 'neon signs' composed of millions of glowing bacteria."

A crystal of porcine trypsin protein created for X-ray crystallography, which can reveal detailed, three-dimensional protein structures.

The plasma membrane is a cell's protective barrier. See image 2523 for an unlabeled version of this illustration. Featured in The Chemistry of Health.

Glucose (top) and sucrose (bottom) are sugars made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. Carbohydrates include simple sugars like these and are the main source of energy for the human body.

Bean-shaped mitochondria are cells' power plants. These organelles have their own DNA and replicate independently. The highly folded inner membranes are the site of energy generation.

Of the three muscle fibers shown here, the one on the right and the one on the left are normal. The middle fiber is deficient a large protein called nebulin (blue). Nebulin plays a number of roles in the structure and function of muscles, and its absence is associated with certain neuromuscular disorders.

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

A large number of proteins interact with the hormone insulin as it is produced in and secreted from the beta cells of the pancreas. In this image, the interactions of TMEM24 protein (green) and insulin (red) in pancreatic beta cells are shown in yellow. More information about the research behind this image can be found in a Biomedical Beat Blog posting from November 2013.

Kinases are enzymes that add phosphate groups (red-yellow structures) to proteins (green), assigning the proteins a code. In this reaction, an intermediate molecule called ATP (adenosine triphosphate) donates a phosphate group from itself, becoming ADP (adenosine diphosphate). See image 2534 for an unlabeled version of this illustration. Featured in Medicines By Design.

The enzyme CCP is found in the mitochondria of baker’s yeast. Scientists study the chemical reactions that CCP triggers, which involve a water molecule, iron, and oxygen. This structure was determined using an X-ray free electron laser.

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.

Top view of myelinated axons in a rat spinal root. Myelin is a type of fat that forms a sheath around and thus insulates the axon to protect it from losing the electrical current needed to transmit signals along the axon. The axoplasm inside the axon is shown in pink. Related to 3396.

Details about the basic biology and chemistry of the ingredients that produce bioluminescence are allowing scientists to harness it as an imaging tool. Credit: Nathan Shaner, Scintillon Institute.

From Biomedical Beat article July 2017: Chasing Fireflies—and Better Cellular Imaging Techniques

Cell showing overproduction of the ARTS protein (red). ARTS triggers apoptosis, as shown by the activation of caspase-3 (green) a key tool in the cell's destruction. The nucleus is shown in blue. Image is featured in October 2015 Biomedical Beat blog post Cool Images: A Halloween-Inspired Cell Collection.

Two models for how material passes through the Golgi apparatus: the vesicular shuttle model and the cisternae maturation model.

Axolotls—a type of salamander—that have been genetically modified so that various parts of their nervous systems glow purple and green. Researchers often study axolotls for their extensive regenerative abilities. They can regrow tails, limbs, spinal cords, brains, and more. The researcher who took this image focuses on the role of the peripheral nervous system during limb regeneration.

This image was captured using a stereo microscope.

Related to images 6927 and 6932.

Although they are tiny, microbes that are growing in confined spaces can generate a lot of pressure. In this video, yeast cells grow in a small chamber called a microfluidic bioreactor. As the cells multiply, they begin to bump into and squeeze each other, resulting in periodic bursts of cells moving into different parts of the chamber. The continually growing cells also generate a lot of pressure--the researchers conducting these experiments found that the pressure generated by the cells can be almost five times higher than that in a car tire--about 150 psi, or 10 times the atmospheric pressure. Occasionally, this pressure even caused the small reactor to burst. By tracking the growth of the yeast or other cells and measuring the mechanical forces generated, scientists can simulate microbial growth in various places such as water pumps, sewage lines or catheters to learn how damage to these devices can be prevented. To learn more how researchers used small bioreactors to gauge the pressure generated by growing microbes, see this press release from UC Berkeley.

Cell-like compartments that spontaneously emerged from scrambled frog eggs. Endoplasmic reticulum (red) and microtubules (green) are visible. Image created using epifluorescence microscopy.

For more photos of cell-like compartments from frog eggs view: 6584, 6585, 6591, 6592, and 6593.

For videos of cell-like compartments from frog eggs view: 6587, 6588, 6589, and 6590.

Learn about some of the different jobs in a scientific laboratory and how researchers work as a team to make discoveries. Discover more resources from NIGMS’ Pathways collaboration with Scholastic. View the video on YouTube for closed captioning.

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.

This is a tomographic reconstruction of a mitochondrion from an insect flight muscle. Mitochondria are cellular compartments that are best known as the powerhouses that convert energy from the food into energy that runs a range of biological processes. Nearly all our cells have mitochondria.

Animation for the vesicular shuttle model of Golgi transport.

This crystal structure shows a conserved hypothetical protein from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Only 12 other proteins share its sequence homology, and none has a known function. This structure indicates the protein may play a role in metabolic pathways. Featured as one of the August 2007 Protein Structure Initiative Structures of the Month.

3D image of Caulobacter bacterium with various components highlighted: cell membranes (red and blue), protein shell (green), protein factories known as ribosomes (yellow), and storage granules (orange).

Cilia (cilium in singular) are complex molecular machines found on many of our cells. One component of cilia is the doublet microtubule, a major part of cilia’s skeletons that give them support and shape. This animated video illustrates the structure of doublet microtubules, which contain 451 protein chains that were mapped using cryo-electron microscopy. Image can be found here 6548.

A shell from the venomous cone snail Conus omaria, which lives in the Pacific and Indian oceans and eats other snails. University of Utah scientists discovered a new toxin in this snail species' venom, and say it will be a useful tool in designing new medicines for a variety of brain disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, depression, nicotine addiction and perhaps schizophrenia.

Body organs such as the liver and kidneys process chemicals and toxins. These "target" organs are susceptible to damage caused by these substances. See image 2496 for an unlabeled version of this illustration.

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.

Both instruments shown were developed by CellFree Sciences of Yokohama, Japan. The instrument on the left, the GeneDecoder 1000, can generate 384 proteins from their corresponding genes, or gene fragments, overnight. It is used to screen for properties such as level of protein production and degree of solubility. The instrument on the right, the Protemist Protein Synthesizer, is used to generate the larger amounts of protein needed for protein structure determinations.

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.

During cell division, spindle pole bodies (glowing dots) move toward the ends of yeast cells to separate copied genetic information. Contractile rings (glowing bands) form in cells’ middles and constrict to help them split. This time-lapse video was captured using wide-field microscopy with deconvolution.

Related to images 6791, 6792, 6793, 6794, 6797, 6798, and video 6795.

These images show frog cells in interphase. The cells are Xenopus XL177 cells, which are derived from tadpole epithelial cells. The microtubules are green and the chromosomes are blue. Related to 3442.

Human cells with the gene that codes for the protein FIT2 deleted. Green indicates an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) resident protein. The lack of FIT2 affected the structure of the ER and caused the resident protein to cluster in ER membrane aggregates, seen as large, bright-green spots. Red shows where the degradation of cell parts—called autophagy—is taking place, and the nucleus is visible in blue. This image was captured using a confocal microscope.

The chemical structure of the morphine molecule

This scanning electron microscope (SEM) image shows podocytes--cells in the kidney that play a vital role in filtering waste from the bloodstream--from a patient with chronic kidney disease. This image first appeared in Princeton Journal Watch on October 4, 2013.

The structure of a gene-regulating zinc finger protein bound to DNA.

A mosquito larva with genes edited by CRISPR. The red-orange glow is a fluorescent protein used to track the edits. This species of mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, can transmit West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, and avian malaria, among other diseases. The researchers who took this image developed a gene-editing toolkit for Culex quinquefasciatus that could ultimately help stop the mosquitoes from spreading pathogens. The work is described in the Nature Communications paper "Optimized CRISPR tools and site-directed transgenesis towards gene drive development in Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes" by Feng et al. Related to image 6770 and video 6771.

This image shows how the CRISPR surveillance complex is disabled by two copies of anti-CRISPR protein AcrF1 (red) and one AcrF2 (light green). These anti-CRISPRs block access to the CRISPR RNA (green tube) preventing the surveillance complex from scanning and targeting invading viral DNA for destruction.

NIGMS-funded researchers led by Roger Kornberg solved the structure of RNA polymerase II. This is the enzyme in mammalian cells that catalyzes the transcription of DNA into messenger RNA, the molecule that in turn dictates the order of amino acids in proteins. For his work on the mechanisms of mammalian transcription, Kornberg received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006.

Dose-response curves determine how much of a drug (X-axis) causes a particular effect, or a side effect, in the body (Y-axis). Featured in Medicines By Design.

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. Despite the relatively large dimension of this biological system, resulting in 815x815x815 mesh points, the parallelized DelPhi, utilizing 100 CPUs, completed the calculations within less than three minutes. Related to image 3375.

A mouse's fat cells (red) are shown surrounded by a network of blood vessels (green). Fat cells store and release energy, protect organs and nerve tissues, insulate us from the cold, and help us absorb important vitamins.

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

In 2007, the FDA modified warfarin's label to indicate that genetic makeup may affect patient response to the drug. The widely used blood thinner is sold under the brand name Coumadin®. Scientists involved in the NIH Pharmacogenetics Research Network are investigating whether genetic information can be used to improve optimal dosage prediction for patients.

This transmission electron micrograph shows sections of mouse sperm tails, or flagella.