The winner | BioTechniques Image Competition 2025
We are very pleased to announce that the winner of this year’s Image Competition is Human neurons reprogrammed from skin cells by Bruno Cisterna!
Human neurons reprogrammed from skin cells
Bruno Cisterna (Research Scientist at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, GA, USA)
The image is an immunofluorescence of fixed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) after 24 days of differentiation. The magenta color represents the microtubule-associated protein 2 (neuronal marker), cyan is the microtubules, and yellow is the nuclei. This reprogramming technique allows human somatic cells, such as skin fibroblasts, to be converted into neurons, providing a powerful in vitro system to model neurological development and disease. In the broader context of life science techniques, iPSC-derived neurons enable researchers to study patient-specific neurobiology, conduct drug screening and investigate mechanisms of neurodegeneration using human-relevant cellular models. Such approaches are essential in personalized medicine and the development of targeted therapeutics for disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS.
Microscope: Nikon CSU-W1 SoRa Spinning Disk Confocal Microscope
Camera: Hamamatsu ORCA-Fusion BT
Objective lens magnification: 40x
We received numerous submissions for the BioTechniques Image Competition 2025! These submissions were sent to our judges for scoring, considering scientific impact, image quality and ‘wow’ factor. The fantastic images you see below are the judge-selected Top 10.
Thank you to everyone who entered the BioTechniques Image Competition 2025; we so appreciate you sharing your scientific images and research with BioTechniques.
