(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON—The Endocrine Society is delighted to announce that Lily Ng, PhD, and Douglas Forrest, Ph.D., have won the Society's 2024 Endocrine Images Art Competition for their image of the astrocyte cell that expresses type 2 deiodinase.
Now in its third year, the Art Competition celebrates the beauty of endocrine science as seen through the lens of a microscope. This year’s 19 entries were judged by a panel of Society members who based their assessments on aesthetic value of the images and their significance to endocrine research.
Ng and Forrest work at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Ng is a Staff Scientist, and Forrest is Chief of the Nuclear Receptor Biology Section at NIDDK.
In submitting their image to the competition, the two noted that one of the most important functions of thyroid hormone is to promote the development of the brain. Deiodinase enzymes in the brain can modify the level of active thyroid hormone available for neurons. The image shows an astrocyte cell that expresses type 2 deiodinase, a thyroid hormone-amplifying enzyme. The astrocyte projects an extensive network of fibers for signaling to neighboring cells.
One member of the grand prize-winning team will receive complimentary registration to the Society’s annual meeting.
Two other winners also were announced in this year’s competition.
The second-place winner is the team of Federico Salas-Lucia, Ph.D., and Sergio Escamilla, M.Sc., Ph.D. candidate, of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Ill., for an image of the mechanisms of thyroid hormone action in brain organoids.
The third-place winner is Celeste Laporte, H.B.Sc., of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, for an image of vasopressin neurons in the rat paraventricular nucleus.
All three winners will have their art displayed at ENDO 2024, the Society’s annual meeting, from June 1-4 in Boston, Mass. The display will be seen by thousands of endocrine scientists and researchers from all over the world. Their work also will be featured in the Society’s magazine Endocrine News, on our website and on social media.
Visit the Endocrine Images Art Competition website for more information and to view this year’s top endocrine images along with previous year’s winners.
# # #
Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.
The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endocrine.org. Follow us on Twitter at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.
END
DALLAS, May 16, 2024 — Pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. have risen 140% over the past three decades and cardiovascular disease is the leading cause.[1] Despite existing medical guidance on pregnancy and cardiovascular health, current trends in health outcomes suggest a significant opportunity for an improved system of care, particularly in the postpartum period.
The American Heart Association, the world’s leading voluntary organization focused on heart and brain health and this year ...
When a patient is experiencing heart failure, a leading cause of death worldwide, they begin to lose healthy and functioning cardiac cells. Heart failure causes these once-flexible cells to develop into fibrotic cells that are no longer able to contract and relax. This stiffening of the cardiac cells compromises their ability to carry blood efficiently to the rest of the organs in the human system. Because humans cannot regenerate these cardiac cells, the patient faces a long road to recovery marked by preventative or symptomatic treatments.
However, some ...
Vanilla extract is one of the most widely used flavoring compounds in food products and cosmetics. The pleasant and sweet smell of this classic flavor is imparted by the chemical compound ‘vanillin’ found in the seed pods of vanilla plants belonging to the orchid family. In plants, vanillin is synthesized by the conversion of ferulic acid by the enzyme - VpVAN. However, laboratory biosynthesis of vanillin from plant-derived VpVAN yields only very small quantities of vanillin, and is, therefore, commercially impractical. Further, although chemically derived ...
NEW YORK, NY — Perceiving something – anything – in your surroundings is to become aware of what your senses are detecting. Today, Columbia University neuroscientists identify, for the first time, brain-cell circuitry in fruit flies that converts raw sensory signals into color perceptions that can guide behavior.
Their findings were pulbished in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
“Many of us take for granted the rich colors we see every day – the red of a ripe strawberry ...
After spinning for under two years, a wind farm can offset the carbon emissions generated across its entire 30-year lifespan, when compared to thermal power plants.
That’s according to a new peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand – which also shows within six months a turbine can generate all the energy consumed across its life-cycle.
The research uses data from the Harapaki onshore wind farm in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand – however the authors of the paper explain that their findings would be replicated across most, if not all, wind farms internationally.
“The wind turbine technology employed in New Zealand ...
One in three people around the world die from cardiovascular disease, which is mainly caused by atherosclerosis. This makes atherosclerosis the leading cause of death globally. Additionally, many people live with serious manifestations of atherosclerosis, for example, following a heart attack or a stroke.
Atherosclerosis not only represents a significant burden for these individuals, but also a heavy burden on healthcare systems and societies in all parts of the world.
“Atherosclerosis may develop from an early age and often remains 'silent’, that is, without symptoms, ...
While ethanol in alcoholic beverages impairs drinkers’ motor functions, it is that same substance that can power motor vehicles in a cleaner, more sustainable manner. What is necessary for the production of ethanol is yeast, but ethanol is among the environmental factors that add stress to yeasts, hindering their growth. To promote efficient bioethanol production, scientists have been searching for substances that can help yeasts better withstand ethanol, but few effective ones have been found.
An Osaka Metropolitan ...
Fukuoka, Japan—Researchers at Kyushu University have published a comprehensive analysis on the carbon footprint of constructing a wooden house in Japan. The study covered the total amount of emissions produced, taking into consideration the entire supply chain including the processing and transport of the raw materials that go into building a house.
The team hopes that by identifying emission hot spots in the supply chain that go into building a house, policy makers can implement strategies to reduce its climate impact. Their analysis was published in the Journal of Environmental ...
Scientists at the University of Oregon have discovered that colonies of gelatinous sea animals swim through the ocean in giant corkscrew shapes using coordinated jet propulsion, an unusual kind of locomotion that could inspire new designs for efficient underwater vehicles.
The research involves salps, small creatures that look similar to jellyfish that take a nightly journey from the depths of the ocean to the surface. Observing that migration with special cameras helped UO researchers and their colleagues capture the macroplankton’s graceful, coordinated swimming behavior.
“The largest migration on the planet ...
New research led by Flinders University and international experts is expanding understanding of vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (known as VITT).
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021,VITT emerged as a new disease following adenovirus vector-based vaccines – notably the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
VITT was found to be caused by an unusually dangerous blood autoantibody directed against a protein termed platelet factor 4 (or PF4).
In separate research in 2023, ...