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by Heather Hobbs Wellcome Image Awards Reflect Stunning Science


Depicting some of the most eye-catching celebration of science, medicine and life, the 2017 Wellcome Image Awards now in its 20th year, recognises the creators of informative, striking and technically excellent images that communicate signifi cant aspects of healthcare and biomedical science. Below are just some of the winning entries selected from all of the new images acquired and science communication. This year’s Wellcome Image Awards were presented on 15 March 2017, by Wellcome Images during the preceding year. The judges are experts from medical science celebrating the scientists, clinicians, photographers and artists who bring science to life through remarkable imaging. More images will be shown in following issues.


Established in 1997, the Wellcome Image Awards reward and showcase the best in science image making – and this year’s 22 winning images represent a broad spectrum of techniques and specialisms.


Winners ‘Stickman’ is Wellcome Image Awards 2017 winner


Intraocular Lens ‘Iris Clip’ Hawaiian Bobtail Squid


This photograph of the human eye shows a surgically implanted structure that can correct or restore vision. Different types of intraocular lenses can be used to tackle different conditions such as short-sightedness and even cataracts. This image was the winner of the Julie Dorrington Award for outstanding photography in a clinical environment.


Credit: Mark Bartley/Cambridge University Hospitals/NHS Foundation Trust/2017 Wellcome Image Awards


Mark Bartley won the Julie Dorrington Award for outstanding photography in a clinical environment. His detailed, close-up picture shows how an iris clip, used to treat near-sightedness and cataracts, is fi tted to the eye. Mark is the second person to win the award. Catherine Draycott, Head of Wellcome Images and Chair of the judges, said: “This extreme close-up shows the expertise of the clinical photographer in illustrating with such clarity and precision this minuscule lens that, clipped by a surgeon into the human iris itself, can restore a patient’s vision.”


Cat Skin and Blood Supply


Native to the Pacifi c Ocean, Hawaiian bobtail squid are nocturnal predators that remain buried under the sand during the day and come out to hunt for shrimp near coral reefs at night. The squid have a light organ on their underside that houses a colony of glowing bacteria called Vibrio fi scheri. The squid provide food and shelter for these bacteria in return for their bioluminescence. The light organ is attached to an ink sac, which the squid uses like a type of shutter, controlling the amount of light released. The squid matches the light the bacteria produce to the moonlight and starlight, masking its silhouette and making it invisible to predators swimming below. This type of camoufl age is called counter- illumination. This image shows a baby Hawaiian bobtail squid. The black ink sac and light organ in the centre of the squid’s mantle cavity are clearly seen.This image is 1.5 cm wide. – imaging technique photomicrography.


Credit: Mark R. Smith, Macroscopic Solutions/2017 Wellcome Image awards Zebrafi sh Eye and Neuromasts


A digital illustration portraying a personal experience of Crohn’s disease is the overall winner of the Wellcome Image Awards 2017. Credit: Spooky Pooka. A detail from Oliver Burston’s skeletal Stickman image. It depicts the weight loss, frailty and abrupt, transformative nature of Crohn’s.


‘Stickman – The Vicissitudes of Crohn’s (Resolution)’ is a striking computer-generated image which conveys the physical and emotional experience of Crohn’s disease, a chronic condition caused by infl ammation of the digestive system. It is part of a series incorporating Stickman, the alter ego of illustrator Spooky Pooka (Oliver Burston), who has the disease. Fergus Walsh, BBC Medical Correspondent and a member of the judging panel, said: “This image is a stunning representation of what it must be like to have Crohn’s disease. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before in terms of the portrayal of someone’s condition: it conveys the pain and torment the sufferer must go through. The image really resonates and is beautifully composed: it’s a haunting piece.”


Credit: Stickman-Oliver Burston/2017 Wellcome Image Awards To view all images visit: www.wellcomeimageawards.org


This image, captured from a Victorian microscope slide using polarised light microscopy shows, as the title reveals, cat skin and its blood supply. Fine hairs and thicker whiskers are shown in yellow while blood vessels are shown in black. More than 40 images were combined to produce the fi nal colourful image.


Credit: David Linstead/2017 Wellcome Image Awards


Exhibitions of the winning images opened from 16 March 2017 in venues across the UK, Europe and Africa, including:


Aberdeen Science Centre, Africa Health Research Institute, South Africa, At-Bristol science centre, Cambridge Science Centre, Dundee Science Centre, Eden Project Cornwall, Glasgow Science Centre, Millenium Point, Birmingham, Polytechnic Museum, Moscow, Russia, Science Gallery Dublin, Ireland, W5, Belfast


For your chance to win a photographic print of one of these images vote for your favourite before 31 August 2017.


This four-day-old zebrafi sh embryo has been modifi ed using two mechanisms – borrowed from the fascinating worlds of bacteria and yeast – that are widely applied in genetics research. A DNA-editing technology called CRISPR/Cas9 was used to insert a gene called Gal4 next to the gene that the researchers wished to study. These Gal4 fi sh were then bred with special reporter fi sh to create fi sh where the gene of interest fl uoresces red whenever it is activated.


Here, the scientists are using these Gal4 reporter fi sh to study a gene expressed in the lens of the eye (the red circle in the middle of the image) the head, and cells called neuromasts (the red dots). Neuromasts form a special mechanosensory system in fi sh that responds to surrounding water movements and is therefore essential for a variety of behaviours, from schooling to avoiding predators. This fi sh’s nervous system has also been labelled for study, and is shown in blueish-green. The width of this image is 500 micrometres (0.5 mm) –imaging technique confocal microscopy


Credit: Ingrid Lekk and Steve Wilson, University College London/2017 Wellcome Image Awards


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