Andor Technology and Imaris, subsidiaries of Oxford Instruments and world leaders in scientific imaging and spectroscopy solutions, have today announced the three visually stunning and scientifically captivating entries to win first place in the 2021 Insight Awards Scientific Imaging Competition.
The Insight Awards focus on recognising the cutting-edge research carried out by researchers using Andor Technology equipment and Imaris software in the fields of both Physical and Life Sciences Imaging. This year’s entries utilised a spectrum of Andor and Imaris products including spectrographs, EMCCD and sCMOS cameras, Confocal Microscopy Systems and Imaris software.
The winning entry in the Physical Sciences category was submitted by Jirayu Mongkolkiattichai of University of Virginia, the Life Sciences category was won by Marina Schernthanner of The Rockefeller University and the Imaris award was taken by Hammed Badmos of University of Glasgow.
Jirayu Mongkolkiattichai’s entry is entitled ‘Site-resolved image of ultracold fermions in a triangular lattice’. Imaged with an Andor Zyla 4.2 Plus, the image demonstrates the first site-resolved imaging of ultracold fermionic lithium-6 atoms (blue) on a triangular lattice, thereby paving the way to the study of exotic phenomena in frustrated systems, including spin liquids.
Marina Schernthanner’s entry is entitled ‘An intestinal field of flowers’. It shows a Z-plane image of small intestinal crypts acquired by confocal imaging of cleared whole-mount tissue from an Lgr5-EGFP-ires-CreERT2 mouse intestine. Paneth cells, important epithelial niche cells maintaining stem cell potential are in red, intestinal stem cells in orange and the nuclei are blue. The image was rendered using Imaris 9.5 visualisation and analysis software.
Hammed Badmos’ entry is entitled ‘4D illustration of Drosophila border cell migration’. The video shows time-lapse imaging of Drosophila border cell migration - anterior to the left and posterior to the right. Border cell (green surface) migrates from the anterior end of the egg through nurse cells (magenta surface) and anterior follicle cells (cyan spots) to the border of oocyte (overlay with yellow spots). The video was put together in Imaris 9.6 software.
The winners were selected from a panel of expert judges from both life and physical sciences: Dr Michelle S.Itano, Director UNC Neuroscience Microscopy Core Facility, Dr Claire Brown, Director Advanced BioImaging Facility, McGill University and Prof. Juergen Popp, Scientific Director, Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Jena.
Commenting on the success of the 2021 Insight Awards, Kristian Laskey, Managing Director of Andor Technology, said:
“The Insight Awards is a powerful way for us to showcase the amazing research carried out using our products, and, having not held the competition since 2015, we were blown away by the response this year.
“The overall quality and quantity of entries was phenomenal, providing our expert, independent judging panel with the unenviable task of selecting just one winner in each category.
“This clearly highlights the significance and detail of the researchers' work across multiple disciplines and we're extremely proud to play a small part in some fascinating scientific breakthroughs and advancements.
“Congratulations to all of the winners.”
For further information on the Insight Awards winners or to view more scientifically captivating and visually stunning scientific images, graphics and movies please visit andor.oxinst.com/insight-awards.
Source: http://andor.oxinst.com/