Each year since 1975, Nikon’s Small World has celebrated images captured by the light microscope. In their 2023 Photomicrography Competition, seven images featuring key players in the nervous system – submitted by experts from four different countries – received honors.
Among their “Top 20,” Nikon awarded first place to Hassanain Qambari and Jayden Dickson (Lions Eye Institute, Perth, Australia) for capturing the rodent optic nerve head showing astrocytes by using confocal fluorescence microscopy. In 10th place, Melinda Beccari and Don W. Cleveland (University of California, San Diego, USA) were recognized for their photograph of motor neurons grown in a microfluidic device. Falling just outside the “Top 20” and receiving an “Honorable Mention” was an image of rat astrocytes captured by Bas van Bommel (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany).
Four entries were recognized by Nikon as “Images of Distinction.” These images included neurons in the cortex of a cortical mouse brain section (Nikky Corthout and Alex Calzoni, Flanders Institute of Biotechnology, Belgium), a maturing mouse cortical neuron (Nadia Efimova, Amicus Therapeutics, Pennsylvania, USA), iPSC-derived human neurons (Saikat Ghosh and Juan S. Bonifacino, National Institutes of Health, Maryland, USA), and mouse retina blood vessels, astrocytes, and microglia (Colin Rogers and Erica Weekman, University of Kentucky, USA).
To view these amazing images, and see other great content, be sure to visit Nikon’s Small World.
Image credit: Hassanain Qambari and Jayden Dickson, Lions Eye Institute, Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Perth, Western Australia, Australia/Nikon Small World.