#nigms

[frontal-cortex]

Mouse retina by NIH Image Gallery Via Flickr: What looks like the gossamer wings of a butterfly is actually the retina of a mouse, delicately snipped to lay flat and sparkling with fluorescent molecules. The image is from a research project investigating the promise of gene therapy for glaucoma. It was created at an NIGMS-funded advanced microscopy facility that develops technology for imaging across many scales, from whole organisms to cells to individual molecules. The ability to obtain high-resolution imaging of tissue as large as whole mouse retinas was made possible by a technique called large-scale mosaic confocal microscopy, which was pioneered by the NIGMS-funded National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research. The technique is similar to Google Earth in that it computationally stitches together many small, high-resolution images. More details: images.nigms.nih.gov/Pages/DetailPage.aspx?imageID=3697 Credit: Kenyoung Kim, Wonkyu Ju and Mark Ellisman, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California, San Diego NIH funding from: National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

[thesingleparentcounselor]

You may not be familiar with the #SDSU #NIH #NIGMS #MARC Scholars program but I am extremely proud of the work we do. Not only do I get to work with some really amazing colleagues and students (Dr. Cathie Atkins has successfully lead this program since day one) but I get to be part of this wonderful #STEM community at #SDSU and be a resource to students who will always hold a special place in my heart. Thank you NIH/NIGMS! Thank you SDSU! Thank you Cathie Atkins and Stanley Maloy! Here's to many, many more years....... #scholasticsupportsaturday #scholastic #academiclife #stemeducation #underrepresented #nobrokenhome https://www.instagram.com/p/CadHArFPPNN/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whipplewhopper]

3D image of actin in a cell by NIH Image Gallery Via Flickr: Actin is an essential protein in a cell's skeleton (cytoskeleton). It forms a dense network of thin filaments in the cell. Here, researchers have used a technique called stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) to visualize the actin network in a cell in three dimensions. The actin strands were labeled with a dye called Alexa Fluor 647-phalloidin. This image appears in a study published by Nature Methods, which reports how researchers use STORM to visualize the cytoskeleton. Credit: Xiaowei Zhuang, HHMI, Harvard University, and Nature Publishing Group NIH support from: National Institute of General Medical Sciences

[felixjtapia]

#Repost @nihgov (@get_repost) ・・・ This is a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrograph of a human stem cell derived neuron. SEM micrographs are taken in a vacuum and the images allow scientists to study intricate features of microscopic organisms, surfaces and cells. This image was created by Thomas Deerinck, a scientist who works in a lab @ucsandiego funded by #NIGMS.⠀ ⠀ #microscopy #photography #ThisIsNIH #ThisIsNIGMS #neuron #cell #sciart #science #BasicResearch #lookcloser #microscopyart https://www.instagram.com/p/BnKQj_wgb9S/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4nrk2ftdt7v2

[brian-d-strahl]

Brian D. Strahl Awarded NIGMS Outstanding Investigator Grant

Brian D. Strahl, Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics and Oliver Smithies Investigator, has been awarded a 5-Year Outstanding Investigator R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) for his research on gene expression and chromatin regulation. The goal of the MIRA award is to increase the efficiency of NIGMS funding by providing investigators with greater stability and flexibility to enhance scientific productivity and the chances for important breakthroughs.  

Brian D. Strahl, PhD, receives R35 MIRA award

[historyatnih]

Celebrate with us!  We have a new display case in the Clinical Center and right now we’re installing an exhibit of a few of the microscopes in our collection, some of which we’ll feature this month for those of you who can’t come to see them in person.  What would a biomedical museum be without microscopes?

This microscope is older than the NIH – it dates to about 1830, when it was made by Abraham Abraham’s shop in Liverpool, England (yes, two “Abrahams”). This is a lower-end microscope, although it has kept its beauty, meant for middle-class amateurs to use in the field.  The design is sometimes called a Cary-Gould type because William Cary, who had an instrument shop on the Strand in London, died in 1825 just as one of his employees, Charles Gould, designed the pocket microscope for that market.

This scope was given to Dr. Ruth Kirschstein in 2003 by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as part of the Howard K. Schachman Public Service Award in recognition of her years as director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (1974-1993) and as Acting Director of the NIH in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

[historyatnih]

Your body's internal clock sets the pace for daily (or circadian) rhythms in response to the light/dark cycle in your environment. Circadian rhythms are found in humans, animals, plants and even tiny microbes. Scientists funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at #NIH study how biological clocks drive circadian rhythms as well as the how these rhythms affect body functions such as sleep timing, hormone release and body temperature. Our researchers also investigate the role of abnormal circadian rhythms in a variety of disorders, including obesity, diabetes and depression. https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/pages/Factsheet_CircadianRhythms.aspx

[historyatnih]

“Biologists view themselves as fortunate compared to a field like physics, where you can't do an experiment without a huge team of people and very expensive equipment. There was concern that biology would become like physics, dependent on these large accelerators and other kinds of gizmos and huge teams of people working together in order to get anything done. In some ways they were right. There still is lots of work for individual investigators coming up with their own ideas to pursue, but certainly many of the questions at the forefront now require multidisciplinary teams of people and significant equipment in order to do research.”  Dr. Elke Jordan, 2002

Jordan came to NIH in 1972, working at NCI and NIGMS.  In 1988, she became director of the Office of Human Genome Research, responsible for laying the foundation for the infrastructure of the Human Genome Project at NIH. In her oral history, she discusses James Watson, Genbank, patents, ethics, media hype, and much more.  Read it at

https://history.nih.gov/archives/downloads/ejordan.pdf