Image Of Optic Disc Wins Annual Microscopy Competition

A colorful close-up image of the optic disc in a rodent’s retina received first place in the annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. Winners Hassanain Qambari and Jayden Dickson took the photo as part of their research into the effects of diabetes on the eye.

Qambari and Dickson from the Lions Eye Institute in Perth, Australia, came in first place among an impressive number of almost 1900 entries from 72 different countries. The detail and clarity of the image impressed the judges, who are all experts in either scientific imaging or science communication.

The image shows the optic nerve head, or optic disc, in a rodent eye. This is the place in the retina where nerve cells that collect visual information all gather to form the optic nerve that transmits that information to the brain. To create the different colors in the image, Qambari and DIckson used fluorescent dyes to label astrocyte cells in yellow, contractile proteins in red and blood vessels in green. They then captured this with a fluorescent microscope that magnified the image twenty times.

Taking images such as this one is part of Qambari’s usual research. He studies diabetic retinopathy, an eye condition in which high blood sugar levels caused by diabetes can damage the blood vessels at the back of the eye.

“Current diagnostic criteria and treatment regimens for diabetic retinopathy are limited to the late-stage appearance of the disease, with irreversible damage to retinal microvasculature and function,” Qambari told Nikon. Through his research he hopes to find out what the early warning signs for diabetic retinopathy are, so that it can be treated much earlier.

The Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition was first held in 1974, so it’s currently in its 49th year. In 2011, Nikon also launched a video microscopy competition, Small World in Motion, to acknowledge that modern research microscopes can record videos just as well as they capture photos. The winners for the 2023 video competition were announced last month, on September 26th.

The overall winner of the video competition was Alexandre Dumoulin of the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

His video is a 48-hour timelapse that shows how neurons form in a growing chicken embryo. By using red and blue fluorescent labels, the different neurons are clearly visible as they make new connections in the developing central nervous system. Dumoulin created the video as part of his research into understanding neurodevelopmental conditions that are formed in the central nervous system.

The Nikon Small World website lists all the other winners and honorable mentions of both the photo and video competition. That includes the second place photo by Ole Bielfeldt from Cologne, which shows a close-up of a matchstick catching fire.

In third place, healthcare consultant Malgorzata Lisowska from Warsaw submitted an image of breast cancer cells that happened to form the shape of a small heart.

While this competition was open to both professionals and amateur microscopists, microscopy is often part of scientists’ regular research. They use microscopy techniques to study how cells behave within organisms or how molecules move within cells, and getting a scientifically useful image can take years of practice.

“Over the past 20 years, our research group has refined the technique of isolated ocular perfusion labeling for fine vessels in the eye,” Qambari said in a statement after winning the competition. “While the ophthalmic artery in the rodent model presented a technically demanding challenge, we were able to overcome it with persistence and patience.”

For researchers like Qambari, having clear and colorful microscopy images can hold important information. For the rest of us, they’re an amazing view into parts of the microscopic world that you don’t normally get to see.

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