Cellular magic on show in Times Square

The winning images from this GE Healthcare’s annual IN Cell Image Competition lit up the night on NBC’s high-definition screen in Times Square, New York City, from 5 through 7 March 2010. The three winning images, as well as the other short-listed entries, can be viewed here, on flickr or in a video. Interviews of the winners at Times Square can also be seen here.

This year’s competition saw over 70 incredible images generated by scientists in nine countries around the world using the IN Cell Analyzer system. The images were shortlisted by a scientific panel and the winners determined through a public vote.

“It’s a privilege to have a great opportunity to show once more the beauty of science to people in a multicultural place such as Times Square,” said the twice European Winner, Dr Miriam Ascagni from DIBIT-San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Italy. “My image shows bone marrow derived cells. The final goal is to use them to generate replacements for muscle cells that are lost because of injury or disease.”

Keiko Suzuki, the winner for Asia, from Showa University, Japan, said: “The IN Cell Analyzer’s ability to take so many pictures in a short time allows us to save a lot of time. My image shows how osteoclasts communicate and fuse with each other. This is important, because by knowing the mechanism of fusion we can develop more effective drugs with less adverse effects.”

“I love the work I am engaged in right now, and this competition was an awesome bonus,” said North America winner Corey Seehus, of Brain Cells, Inc. “We’re trying to find a different way of finding small molecules that will work to induce differentiation in the neurons in the human brain.”

The winning entries will also be featured in GE Healthcare’s IN Cell Analyzer Image Calendar 2011.

For more images and multimedia content, please see here: https://newsroom.gehealthcare.com.

About High Content Analysis and High Content Screening

High Content Analysis (HCA) and High Content Screening (HCS) are essential tools in many areas of life science research and drug discovery. HCA employs cellular assays in a high throughput imaging and analysis format, which allows researchers to do more complex experiments, to increase the number of questions they can ask whilst simultaneously decreasing the time taken to achieve their results. It can be used in many application areas such as predictive toxicology, live cell imaging and screening. In contrast to established methods such as microscopy, western blotting or flow cytometry, HCA is non-destructive and much less time consuming, making it easier and more efficient for scientists to study cellular processes in their true biological context. This enables researchers to obtain better data and gain more knowledge about cellular systems in a much shorter time.

About GE Healthcare’s IN Cell Analyzer

IN Cell Analyzer is a modular imaging system for fast and automated High Content Analysis (HCA). It provides great image quality, a prerequisite for the generation of good data, enabling scientists to study cellular processes in their true biological context for research and drug discovery. It offers high-throughput microscopy in combination with modern cellular assays and robotic handling for automated cellular imaging and analysis. The system is also offered with a variety of award-winning, easy-to-use and flexible software tools, which can cope with a wide range of assays and help interpret data quickly into results. IN Cell Analyzer customers receive reliable, timely and specialist support from GE Healthcare, including the unique remote support of Bio Insite™. For more detailed information on the IN Cell suite, visit www.gelifesciences.com/incell

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.

Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.