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Vote for your winner of the 2020 Capturing Cancer: Oncology Central Photography Competition


The judges have had their say and now it’s up to you to choose the winner!

If you’d like to find out more about the researchers behind these photos then take a look at our interviews with the finalists below, and once you have chosen cast your vote!

Vote here

The winner will receive:

  • US $100 Amazon voucher
  • The winning image will be printed on our 2020 conference bags
  • A whopping 35% off Open Access when you submit a paper to the journal Future Oncology or 50% off Open Access when you submit a paper to one of our Oncology Management journals
  • Their photo featured on Oncology Central alongside an interview about the photographer and the research behind the photo

Vote for your winner of the Capturing Cancer: Oncology Central Photography Competition

 

Cause or consequence of Centrosome amplification

Photographer: Anita Singh

Could you introduce yourself and your current role?

My name is Anita Singh, a postdoctoral researcher at University of Leicester (UK). My work involves understanding the drivers of genomic instability and drug resistance in mesothelioma.

What began your interest in the field?

Science has always been my passion, as a child had so many questions as to how cells regulate our body mechanisms, functions and their response to any disease. And, after a breast cancer scare at quite an early age, made my decision to step forward in cancer research.

Could you give us a brief background to this photograph and how it ties into your research?

My project involves understanding how mitotic defects increase genomic instability. A normal cell during mitosis has two centrosomes and divides into two daughter cells with the exact same genetic information as the parent cell. The image shows three daughter cells instead of two daughters in telophase with multiple centrosomes. The three daughters can have arisen due to centrosome amplification during mitosis. The daughter cells will either survive as a multinucleated cell after failing cytokinesis increasing aneuploidy or may undergo cell death. Microtubules (red), centrosome (green), DAPI (blue).

What message would you like people to take away from your image?

Presence of more than two centrosomes is a common feature in cancer. Amplified centrosomes can generate multipolar spindles driving genomic instability. Mitotic defects such the one shown in this image may lead to chromosomal instability, structural rearrangements increasing mutational load and tumor burden. More studies are required to develop therapies targeting centrosome dysfunction.


Cancer cells chatting

Photographer: Louisiane Perrin

The inner side of a breast tumor

Photographer: Louisiane Perrin

Could you introduce yourself and your current role?

My name is Louisiane Perrin, I am currently a third year Ph.D. student in the Gligorijevic laboratory at the Bioengineering department of Temple University (PA, USA).

What began your interest in the field?

I was introduced to cell motility and live microcopy during my Master’s degree. This is when I knew that I wanted to become a microscopist, to capture cell and tissue dynamics.

Could you give us a brief background to this photograph and how it ties into your research?

For image title: Cancer cells chatting

Our laboratory’s goal is to understand how cancer cells integrate and respond to cues present in their environment. For example, we are investigating the collagen matrix that surrounds cancer cells. We are also interested by the way cancer cells communicate amongst each other. We strive towards predicting cancer cell decisions to prevent their dissemination and metastasis.

For image title: The inner side of a breast tumor

Our laboratory’s goal is to understand how cancer cells integrate and respond to cues present in their environment. In particular, we are investigating the characteristics of the blood vessels that are present inside the primary tumor, and how they influence cancer cells behavior. We strive towards predicting cancer cell decisions to prevent their dissemination and metastasis.

What message would you like people to take away from your image?

To tackle cancer, a better understanding of what occurs inside the cell is important, but we also need to know how cancer cells adapt to their environment.


Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Photographer: Luca Caucci

Could you introduce yourself and your current role?

My name is Luca Caucci and I am a research faculty member in the Department of Medical Imaging at The University of Arizona (AZ, USA). I grew up in Italy and completed my undergraduate degree there before moving to Arizona for my graduate studies. After graduating with a PhD in optical sciences, I decided to remain in academia. In my current capacity, I lead a very talented team of image scientists dedicated to the development and implementation of novel methods for emission tomography imaging.

What began your interest in the field?

I have been interested in computers and maths ever since I was a kid. At the University of Arizona, I started working in the lab of Dr Harrison Barrett. Under his supervision, I carried out research in imaging, with particular emphasis on understanding how images are produced and how we can design an imaging system and algorithms that help us make a correct decision (such as if an abnormality is present or not). Not surprisingly, that involved writing code and doing a lot of maths.

Could you give us a brief background to this photograph and how it ties into your research?

What is shown is the spatial distribution of a radiotracer or molecular imaging probe used to study a highly aggressive and lethal cancer: pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Among many things, two tumors (each about two millimeters in size) are visible. For this study, we used a live mouse that was genetically engineered to spontaneously develop PDAC. The mouse was injected with a radiotracer that targets PDAC cells. Upon decay of the radioactive atoms in the radiotracer, gamma rays are emitted from within the mouse. These gamma rays are detected by specially designed cameras. Information about each detected gamma ray is processed with a computer program running on parallel processing hardware (such as graphics processing units). Images produced in this way are used to understand various aspects of an anticancer drug and/or treatment plan, including how fast the drug reaches the cancer cells and kills them, the amount of damage to normal tissues and so on. Understanding the effectiveness of a drug is not an easy task, as the drug typically reaches organs and tissues we do not want it to reach (for example, the large ellipsoidal region at the bottom of the image is the bladder), and it is affected by them. Moreover, the effectiveness of a drug depends many factors, including genetics. There is a strong need for methods capable of quantifying the effectiveness of a drug on a patient-by-patient basis.

What message would you like people to take away from your image?

Cancer is a complex disease. Although significant progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms involved in cancer biology and how they relate to drugs, the treatments we have today have a chance to save a patient’s life only if the disease is diagnosed early. Development of new treatments will likely require a coordinate effort from many fields, including chemistry, molecular biology, genetics and biomedical engineering. Imaging plays a major role in fighting cancer. In drug development, imaging allows us to deepen our understanding of cancer biology and cancer treatment; in the clinic, new imaging methods help us diagnose cancer earlier and more accurately.

Vote for your winner of the Capturing Cancer: Oncology Central Photography Competition