Microscopy in Focus for Maine INBRE Students
Students and young science faculty from all around Maine converged on MDI Bio Lab’s campus for an intensive 10-day course on the use of the most modern microscopy of the day.
Continue Reading2022 MDI Biological Laboratory Publications
In 2022 MDI Biological Laboratory’s researchers continued to push into new scientific frontiers in the biology of aging, repair and regeneration, expanding our knowledge of how to protect and extend healthy lifespans.
Continue ReadingHoL1day Tree
Hannah Somers, a research assistant in the Rollins lab, created this composite image of L1 C. elegans. C. elegans have four larval stages before adulthood – L1 is the first larval stage after hatching. These images were taken to understand how intermittent fasting impacts L1 C. elegans and protein translation rates. L1 C. elegans enter an ageless state of arrest when fasted, making...
Continue ReadingGiving Tuesday at MDIBL
Meet Marko Pende, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Murawala lab at MDI Biological Laboratory. Marko investigates limb regeneration in axolotls, and is also an award-winning science photographer who’s inventing new ways to “clear” sample tissues, making them transparent for easier viewing. This fall, with his colleagues in the Light Microscopy Facility, Pende is building...
Continue ReadingMicroscopy Animations at MDIBL
Check out some remarkable animations — including the development of the zebrafish’s brain, brain vasculature, and kidneys — that Frédéric Bonnet, Ph.D., created with the Laboratory’s existing array of microscopes. The last animation, published by Somers et. al in the journal Cell Reports Methods, shows protein translation in C. elegans.
Continue ReadingMicroscopy Momentum at MDIBL
MDIBL’s facilities and website overflow with the beautiful and sometimes startling images its scientists, staff and students produce in the course of their research with the laboratory’s battery of microscopy and transgenic animal models. One of the experts, Marko Pende, Ph.D., was recognized this month by Nikon’s international “Small World Photomicrography Competition” for making an...
Continue ReadingWhat Philanthropy Makes Possible
If you like bananas, you probably have a preference for which color -- green, yellow, or brown -- you reach for first (Team Green, anyone?). The skin’s color clues you into the banana’s sugar and antioxidant levels: antioxidants peak when the banana is firm and fully yellow; sugars continue to develop as brown spots appear on the skin. Not only does color tell us things about food, it also strongly influences what we taste – does anyone else remember Heinz’s EZ Squirt purple ketchup? It’s just not the same.
Continue ReadingBeyond the Naked Eye
Hannah Somers is a research assistant in Jarod Rollins's lab. Among other things, she is an avid photographer and skilled microscopist. Read on to discover what jumpstarted Hannah’s interest in microscopy and how she uses it to move science forward.
Continue ReadingExcited about light
Think back to the last time you peered through a microscope. Was it in your high school biology class?
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