BPoD

Hurling beautiful and intriguing imagery from global biomedical research at your eyes, every day of the year. BPoD.org.uk

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Eggs' Essential Pathway

It's known that egg (oocyte) development – in all sexually reproducing animals – relies on a molecular signalling pathway called Wnt/β-catenin, but the details of its role are still being explored. Now, in developing zebrafish, researchers find that Wnt/β-catenin activity rises until eggs reach a certain size, then it rapidly declines. And they reveal the vital function of protein Stn1 in maintaining egg development

Read the published research article here

Image made using Leica Microsystems microscopy

Image from work by Xin Zhang, Yanpeng Zhai and Caixia Wang and colleagues

Key Laboratory of Marine Drugs (Ocean University of China), Chinese Ministry of Education, and School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in EMBO Reports, April 2026

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Fitness Race

From the moment we’re infected with a virus, the race is on. Our B-lymphocyte cells rush to make intricate antibodies that latch on to proteins called antigens on the pathogen’s surface. Only the best fitting antibody will emerge victorious. B-cells perfect their antibodies inside structures called germinal centres – mutating their DNA, to changing antibody 'designs' and try out different prototypes. Here researchers watch a simplified form of this race in mouse lymph nodes (highlighted in blue). Activating some of the germinal centres (red) with a burst of laser light (turning them green), they follow B-cells using a technique called deep mutational scanning to predict how the antibodies change with each mutation. Similar to evolution, this trial and error eventually finds a champion B-cell with the best fitting antibody to tackle the virus. Such insights might influence vaccines designed to tackle viruses that change their antigens, like HIV.

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by William S. DeWitt, Ashni A. Vora and Tatsuya Araki, and colleagues

Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Laboratory of Lymphocyte Dynamics, the Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Cell, June 2026

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Different Red Islands

In foetuses, white and red blood cells develop in the liver – the process of haematopoiesis – and at birth the bone marrow takes up the mantle. In both situations, red blood cells are nurtured to maturity in niches called erythroblastic islands where they lose their nuclei to maximise oxygen-carrying capacity (mature red cells and platelets are the only cells of the body without a nucleus). Here, mapping the gene activity of these islands in mouse and human foetal liver and bone marrow reveals a different make-up in each species - in mice, macrophages (large white cells of the immune system) play a key role, but not in humans which depend on the adhesion molecule ICAM4

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Xu Han & Kehan Ren, and colleagues

Department of Pathology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Genetics, July 2026

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Heart Check

Any new medicine must not only solve a problem, but avoid causing harm elsewhere in the body. Damaging side effects are a key reason drug development stalls, and heart toxicity is a common pitfall. Researchers hope to identify such drawbacks in pre-clinical tests, but existing models provide a limited approximation of the heart, and there is a universal goal to reduce reliance on animal testing. A team has therefore developed a new ‘heart-on-a-chip’ platform to enable more realistic toxicity testing at an early stage. The system (pictured, with elements separately, left, and together) includes heart muscle (green), structural fibroblasts (cyan), and blood vessel lining cells (red), all derived from a single line of precursor stem cells for consistency. The lining cells helped the platform better reflect the heart’s natural defences against toxicity compared to more simple models, giving researchers a more complete picture before moving to clinical trials in people.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Karine Tadevosyan and colleagues

Stem Cell Potency Group, Regenerative Medicine Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet De Llobregat, Spain

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Published in Advanced Healthcare Materials, February 2026

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Travelling Light

This study presents a 3D imaging and analytic pipeline based on light sheet microscopy for tracking cancer spread to new sites and revealing how the malignant cells interact with vessels there. Shown is breast cancer that's travelled to the lung in a mouse model.

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Sabrina M. Lewis and colleagues

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, VIC, Australia

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in npi Imaging, November 2025

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Access Denied

Influenza virus, shown here coloured red inside lung cells, infects these and other epithelial cells of the respiratory tract to create all the unpleasant symptoms we associate with a bout of flu. Recently, scientists who were investigating how the virus is replicated and mobilised within these cells made a surprising discovery. They inhibited the activity of a particular vesicle [a membrane-coated organelle for moving molecules in and out of cells] trafficking protein, called Rab11B, to see the effect on viral protein transport and found that one of the viral strains they were studying (H3N2) was blocked from entering the cells altogether. The other (H1N1) was not. Until these experiments, it had been presumed that H3N2 and H1N1 entered cells by the same mechanism. While the precise role of Rab11B in H3N2 cellular entry remains to be determined, the findings could lead to new ways for preventing and curtailing infections with that particular strain.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image from work by Allyson H. Turner & Sara A. Jaffrani, and colleagues, Bruce Lab

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA

Image originally published with no restrictions – hence published here with as Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Research published in Journal of Virology, June 2026

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Loophole for Entry

A common route for cancer cell spread or metastasis is via lymphatics – the vessels that connect the body-wide network of lymph tissue, sites of immune response. This report finds entry by the cancer cells into the lympho-vascular system is driven by the balance of TNRC6B/circTNRC6B gene products (an interactive self-degradative loop of TNRC6B protein and a circular product of the TNRC6B gene message); their activity could be a biomarker of prognosis and a treatment target

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Lingjiao Meng, Haotian Wu & Jiaxiang Wu, and colleagues

Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Cell Reports, July 2026

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Nudge Theory

We all respond differently to a nudge or a kick. So do our cells, reacting to physical forces from neighbouring cells and structures in unique ways that are hard to predict. To better understand this mechanotransduction – how cells convert physical forces to biological signals – researchers have developed a new platform for precise prodding. Tiny magnetic protrusions embedded on a soft hydrogel surface act as pillars for cells to grow on and around (pictured). When the researchers apply a magnetic field, the pillars bend, tugging or pushing on the cells. The team can then measure how cells respond to various degrees of pressure, observing in real time how dynamic forces impact behaviour. Cells grown among these protrusions adopted different shapes from those grown on flat surfaces, demonstrating a platform that could eventually feed into better tissue engineering and disease modelling.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Roel Kooi and colleagues

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Advanced Health Care Materials, February 2026

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Controlled by Axin

Immediately after implantation, formation of the embryo begins. From early cells called the pluripotent epiblast, the differentiation into the myriad cell types of the body begins to unfold, first into a layer called the mesoderm, but how this specification is controlled remains to be fully elucidated. The Wnt signalling pathway of molecules underlies the steps towards specific cell type commitment, and here, a study of mouse embryo development reveals that proteins AXIN1 and AXIN2 regulate Wnt to prevent the epiblast committing to mesoderm differentiation until the time is right

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Rocío Hernández-Martínez and colleagues

Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Developmental Cell, July 2026

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Seams Vital

Like the carefully stitched hem of a pleated skirt, the outer layer of the heart is fundamental to its entire shape and function. This epicardium is a regulator of development and regeneration, and supports vessel and muscle growth. To better understand the molecular mechanisms guiding its development, researchers investigated a protein called SRSF3, which helps process RNA messages (strands of genetic material). When it was removed from early mouse epicardial precursor cells, the epicardium failed to form normally (right, reduced green SRSF3 limiting outgrowth around explants cultured from embryonic hearts, compared to normal, left) so proper heart formation was prevented. Their experiments also showed cells that dodged SRSF3 deletion increased production to compensate, cautioning researchers that incomplete gene deletion can hide how important a gene really is in experiments. Understanding these growth controls could eventually help researchers tackle both congenital heart defects and the challenge of repairing broken hearts.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Irina-Elena Lupu and Susann Bruche, and colleagues

Institute of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine, British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Development, March 2026

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Deeply Illuminating

A new dynamic full-field optical coherence microscopy system that dives deep into light-scattering tissues (mouse liver shown) and emerges with high resolution images assigned RGB colour coding, without the need for physical cell labelling

Read the published research article here

Video from work by Erikas Tarvydas, Austėja Trečiokaitė & Egidijus Auksorius

Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC), Vilnius, Lithuania

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in npi Imaging, March 2026

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Variety Upon Variety

Titin, the largest protein produced in the body, is a giant spring-like protein found in muscle cells, including those of the heart (pictured). There are multiple versions of titin, and their production is regulated, at least in part, by splicing factor (cutting the RNA transcript to make different sized versions of the same protein) RBM20 (coloured blue). In the infant mammalian heart, for example, most titin is long and elastic, while in older mammals RBM20 activity leads to shorter stiffer versions of the protein. Aberrant production of RBM20 has been linked to certain cardiomyopathies, suggesting its inhibition in these disorders could be clinically beneficial. Interestingly, new research in rodent and human samples reveals RBM20 itself also has multiple versions, and their production is influenced by developmental stage and disease. The findings suggest regulation of heart muscle flexibility is much more complex than previously thought and that any therapies targeting RBM20 might need fine tuning to pinpoint specific versions of the factor.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image from work by Michael H. Radke, Victor Badillo Lisakowski and Stefan Meinke, and colleagues

Translational Cardiology and Functional Genomics, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, May 2026

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Metal Liker Unforgiven

We need trace metals for healthy cell function but then so do all other organisms, handily we have a means of safeguarding the supply of certain metals which doubles as an anti-pathogen strategy. A protein in the mammalian gut lining cells called natural resistance-associated macrophage protein 2 (also known as SLC11A2) starves pathogenic microrganisms of iron and manganese – shown here using Salmonella enterica (in red) as a model in cow gut, with metals tracked using fluorescent sensors

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Emilia S. Norberg and colleagues

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), June 2026

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Pretty Deadly

Bacteria spread over surfaces as biofilms – communities of microbes that sprawl silently, often invisible to the naked eye. Watching early biofilms under a microscope is the first step to learning how to stop them, perhaps after a brief pause to marvel at how beautiful they can be. Here, differently-coloured strains of bacteria grow in fixed colonies, producing a flower like pattern similar in size to a daisy. By preventing these strains of Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae) from moving around, researchers see what happens when colonies compete for space, finding they meet at boundaries very similar to a Voronoi tessellation. This well-known mathematical pattern is often used in biology to predict growth in confined spaces. Developing mathematical models of V. cholerae bacteria – which can cause cholera – may suggest ways to disrupt these pretty, deadly patterns growing in the wild.

Written by John Ankers

Video from work by Melika Gorgi and colleagues

Center for Complex Biological Systems, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), May 2026

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Arbor Mastered

Assembling and growing in the lab the different cell types that make up a particular body tissue – cultures known as organoids – emulates physiology in many ways sufficiently to study cell and molecular interactions for example, but there's more to life. Here, using a defined chemical protocol, lung organoids have been coaxed to branch, mimicking the tree-like pattern seen in our lungs, upgrading to a more life-like means to study development and regeneration

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Mengjie Pan, Baomei Cai, Guanlie Li, Ruifang Zhang, Chuncao Deng, Huan Chen and colleagues

Guangzhou National Laboratory, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Published in Developmental Cell, June 2026

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Unexpected Barrier Function

All eukaryotic organisms – that is, all animals, plants and fungi – contain a protein called cyclin dependent kinase 1 (CDK1), which is critical for driving cells through the process of division. This role in cell division has been known for about fifty years, but recent research reveals that CDK1 has another hitherto unknown function. Scientists studying mammalian kidney epithelial cells (pictured) discovered that the protein was located at intercellular connections (green) where it interacted with cell-to-cell cohesion factors and promoted epithelial barrier integrity. Indeed, inhibiting CDK1 activity led to perturbed cell contacts and caused areas of the barrier to become leaky (purple regions). Because of CDK1’s role in the cell cycle, the protein has been proposed as a potential target for cancer therapy. Investigations into such therapies, should thus keep in mind CDK1’s newly discovered function and the implications of its disruption.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image by from Margarida Dantas and Martijn Gloerich. Re: work by Margarida Dantas & Lisa Donker, and colleagues

Center for Molecular Medicine, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

Image copyright held by the original authors

Research published in Science Signaling, June 2026

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Deep Cell Pursuit

Tagging red blood cells and neutrophils ('first responder' cells of the immune system) with distinct optoacoustic signatures (using near-infrared dyes) allows real-time cell tracking in vessels deep in a live mouse's brain (cerebral vasculature represented left and flow velocity right). Clinical application of such principles in the future, for example after a stroke, could accelerate diagnosis and recovery

Read the published research article here

Still from video from work by Lin Tang and colleagues

Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Science Advances, June 2026

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