The Biophysical Society's Annual Art of Science Image Contest took place again this year, during the 64th Annual Meeting in San Diego. The second place winning image was submitted by Tejeshwar Rao, a postdoc working with Alexa Mattheyses at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Rao took some time to provide information about the image and the science it represents.
How did you compose this image?
Cos-7 cells depicted in our bioart were plated on a tension gauge tether surface, fixed and stained for paxillin and actin one-hour post plating. The images were acquired by total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy to specifically look at the tension at the plasma membrane-coverslip interface where the cells bind to the exposed ligand (RGD) via specific integrin receptors and the underlying distribution of paxillin and the cytoskeletal architecture which helps transduce the mechanical signal. The images were combined into a collage using adobe illustrator following background subtraction and color coding for the different channels.
What do you love about this image? Or, what about this image made you submit it for the contest?
Currently, an important focus of our research is to understand how cells interact with their microenvironment. I was optimizing the use of DNA-based tension sensors in our laboratory and found that this montage is a good representative example that captured the intricately organized cellular response to specific microenvironmental cues (here EGF stimulation). When I acquired the image, I thought the cell looked like owl eyes, it was as if the cell was looking at me as I imaged it through the microscope. l also thought that a visual image representative of the mechanical forces experienced by a cell would intrigue many biophysicists.
What do you want viewers to see/think when they view this image?
Upon close observation of the image one can observe a beautiful radially distributed pattern for both the tension and focal adhesions within cells. Since this is a montage including different treatment conditions you can find perturbation of the patterns in some cases. There are puncta, stretched and fibril-like patterns. Various adhesion structures including focal adhesions, focal complexes, and filopodia with various shapes transmit tension to the surface, and the force was recorded like a footprint. I would like that viewers to think about the how cells can form specific distribution patterns of their adhesion structures by interacting mechanically with specific cellular environments/ biochemical signals. The outcome is dependent on specific triggering of signaling pathways and represents the cells ability to respond to specific stimulus.
How does this image reflect your scientific research?
Currently, an important focus of the research in our lab is to understand how cells interact with their microenvironment and how the spatial-temporal dynamics and regulation of this communication impacts cellular homeostasis and function. For this we rely on developing and applying innovative fluorescence microscopy techniques which helps us elucidate the dynamics, forces, and organization of proteins within macromolecular assemblies central to cellular communication. As one can see in this bioart, we probe the molecular forces involved in cell adhesion using Cos-7 cells plated on a tension gauge tether surfaces (TGT) while image it in the TIRF mode.
Can you provide real-world examples/applications of your research?
The bioart was made with Cos-7 fibroblast cells. However, DNA based tension sensors such as TGT have been employed in numerous applications to determine the role that force plays in cell surface receptor signaling. A specific example would be in studying the T cell receptor (TCR) response. TCRs use force as a means to distinguish between foreign antigens and self-antigens.
How does your research apply to those who are not working in your specific field?
All cells respond specifically and dynamically to biochemical and mechanical cues from the extracellular environment, and dysregulation of the interplay between these diverse signals leads to a variety of diseases. Therefore, it is important to decipher the active role of specific inputs that transduce mechanical signals and understand how these signals are interpreted and responded to since they have the potential to affect physiology and pathology.
Do you have a website where our readers can view your recent research?
I am a postdoc working with Alexa Mattheyses in University of Alabama at Birmingham. Please visit our laboratory website for further information.