Dr David Gothard wins Biomedical Imaging Unit Micrograph 2013
Dr Gothard, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the 'Bone and Joint' research group, which is part of Human Development and Health (HDH), and based in the 'Institute of Developmental Sciences'. He is in his 5th year of a 5yr BBSRC intercollaborative Lola programme, between the University of Southampton (Prof. Richard O. C. Oreffo), University of Nottingham (Prof. Kevin M. Shakesheff), Imperial College London (Prof. Molly Stevens), and Keele University (Prof. Alicia El Haj).
David won the grand prize with his image of an embryonic day 14 chick foetus. The embryo was processed for an 'Inouye Stain' which involves removal of lipids in acetone and staining with Alcian blue and Sirius red. Alcian blue stains cartilage bright blue. Sirius red stains collagen bright red (highlights mineralised bone). One of the group's technicians, Mrs Carol A. Roberts, stained the chick embryo before it was imaged.
The image was taken on a stereomicroscope, and adjusted for high contrast, increased saturation, and the colours were inverted (green represents mineralised bone, orange represents cartilage).
The chick image was taken as part of Dr Gothard’s studies. The project aims to engineer new bone tissue both in the lab and within animal models. Hopefully, these studies will help researchers to understand how to regenerate bone in patients in the future. Dr Gothard also won the BIU competition in 2012 with another image taken as part of his studies.