Name: Ishaque Sayeed Mohammad
Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine,University of Liverpool
Title: ‘When Science Loves You Back’
Description: Immunofluorescence Microscopyof two Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL)cells (which strongly stained DAPI) exhibitingpseudo emperipolesis with a single Nurse-LikeCell expressing CD163.
Name: Ishaque Sayeed Mohammad
Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine,University of Liverpool
Title: ‘An Ominous Sighting under Microscope’
Description: MGG stained slide, viewed underoil immersion, showing a group of CLL cellswith Nurse-Like Cells (NLCs) where theinvolvement of water droplets gives theimpression of a sinister smiling face.
Name: Luna Djirackor
Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine,University of Liverpool
Title: Tadpoles or comets?
Description: These are uveal melanoma(UM) cells in culture that have been stainedwith the intermediate filament markerNestin. It has been reported to aid in themigration and invasion of tumour cells inseveral cancers. The red positive staining ofNestin together with the blue nuclei stainlook like a comet travelling in space or atadpole swimming. This might be similar towhat happens during metastasis. An in-depth study of Nestin and its function inuveal melanoma would provide moreinsight to the mechanisms involved inmetastasis of this cancer.
Name: Samuel PrendergastMolecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine,University of Liverpool
Title: Split personality
Description:Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and alpha smoothmuscle actin (aSMA) staining of an established uvealmelanoma (UM) cell line (blue stained cells) showswhat appears to be a population of activatedfibroblasts in the culture (red stained cells). Whilstpossibly a rogue contaminating population offibroblasts in symbiotic equilibrium, aSMA is oftenpositive at varying levels in uveal melanocytes isolatedfrom tumours (UM cells). Moreover, recent studieshave shown that melanocytes can, under certainconditions, ‘change’ into fibroblast like cells throughacquisition of stem-cell like properties and trans-differentiation as they share a common cellularlineage; both arising from neural crest cells.
Name: Carlos De FigueiredoMolecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine,University of Liverpool
Title: Live microtubules
Description: Art can retouch science withunexpected beauty, sharpening theimagination of the most unbelieving folk. Herewe highlight the casual observation of amelanoma cell in a rare triangle symmetricshape, which has been infected with abaculovirus that carries the geneticinformation for the expression of fluorescentmicrotubules. Thus, tubulin-dynamics can betracked allowing a better understanding of thecytoskeleton-dependent motility of melanomacells during the metastatic process. Themicrotubule filaments were photographedusing time-lapse fluorescence microscopy andpartially sculpted into a grey field, creating thisamazing cell-topography impression.
Name: Lucy IrelandMolecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine,University of Liverpool
Title: Macrophage Infiltration in Breast Cancer
Description: Immunofluorescent image of abreast tumour infiltrated by monocytes andmacrophages (in yellow). Blue staining showscell nuclei.
Name: Almudena I. Santos BajoMolecular and Clinical Cancer MedicineUniversity of Liverpool
Title: Immunofluorescent image of breastcancer micrometastasis to the lung.
Description: Immunofluorescent imageshowing a lung micrometastasis of breastcancer. Fibroblasts are labelled in greenand surround proliferating metastaticcancer cells that are labelled in red. Cellnuclei are labelled in blue.
Name: Daniel NewmanUniversity of Liverpool
Title: The Escape Artist
Description: Cancer cells escapingaway from thesite of the primary tumour have to navigatetheir way through a complex 3Dmicroenvironment. This image shows a MDA-MB-231 (triple negative breast cancer) cellinvading through fluorescently labelled densecollagen matrix. The collagen matrix has beencolour coded to demonstrate depth, while theinvading cell is superimposed in red. Noticeablein this image is an accumulation of collagenfibres at the protrusive front of the cell, whichthe cell has pulled toward itself. This is anexample of how cancer cells are able remodelthe extracellular matrix to facilitate theirmigration.
Name: Carolyn RainerUniversity of Liverpool
Title: Science meets Pop Art
Description: Liver metastases of pancreatic cancer, aswith many other cancer types, are highly infiltratedby cells of the immune system, which arepredominately of the myeloid cell linage. To deepercharacterize these immune cells and to assess theirrole in tumour progression we are currentlyestablishing the use of multi-dimensional single-cellanalysis using mass cytometry. viSNE is a powerfulcomputational tool to reduce high-dimensional datato bring cell types with a similar expression profile inclose proximity. In tribute to Andy Warhol, this imageshows four different expression markers, highlightingmacrophages (F4/80, upper left), activated T cells(PD1, upper right), myeloid derived suppressor cells(Ly6G, lower left) and antigen-presenting cells(MHCII, lower right).
Name: Ibrar AhmedMolecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine, University of LiverpoolTitle: Heart-shaped Uveal Melanoma tissue sampleDescription: ‘Tumour cells are stained red, nuclei are counterstained blue, novel therapies in Uveal Melanoma could treat you’. Depicted above is a heart-shaped Uveal Melanoma: a very rare and aggressive eye cancer. Treatment of the primary tumour is largely successful; however, half of patients develop metastases, proving difficult to treat which result in a poor prognosis. Positive staining (red) shows the expression of a tumour suppressor gene, Programmed Cell Death 4 (PDCD4). Although it seems futile to seek the ‘magic’ in cancer medicine, the potential lies in unearthing possible targeted treatment therapies against uveal melanoma by undertaking further studies involving PDCD4.
Name: Dr Valentina BarreraInstitute of Ageing and Chronic DiseasesUniversity of Liverpool
Title: "Escape from the maze"
Description: The "maze" here is an interpretation ofthe crypt architectural distortion and high irregularityshown in colon squamous cell carcinoma(SCC) tissue.
LaNt a31 (brown histological immunostaining) isstrongly expressed in the tissue. LaNta31 is a laminin-related protein which can modulate laminin networkassembly, however its involvement in tumours hasn'tbeen investigated before. The maze is a code: definethe role of LaNta31 in SCC pathogenesis and you willfind the way through the maze.
Finally, the maze might represent anxiety of patientsdiagnosed with cancer. "To escape fear, go throughthe maze not around it".
Name: Philip J Johnson1,2, Sarah Berhane1, ToshifumiTada3, Hidenori Toyoda3, Takashi Kumada3 , 4Ke Chen,Jinmin Duan
Title: Creating the boundary; From Molecular toMathematical Medicine
Description: We use three blood tests ‘biomarkers’ toaid the diagnosis of liver cancer. Conventionally theseare used individually but here we plot each of thethree biomarkers in a three dimensional matrix. Thepatients with liver cancer are in red and the controlsubjects, who have liver disease but no cancer, are inblue.
The beautiful architectural plane that is generated inthree dimensional space is produced using SupportVector Machine learning and is known as a ‘decisionboundary’. It optimally separates the two populationsthereby enhancing the diagnostic power of thebiomarkers.
Name: Philip J Johnson1,2, Sarah Berhane1,Toshifumi Tada3, Hidenori Toyoda3, TakashiKumada3 , 4Ke Chen, Jingmin Duan
Title: Crossing the Boundary: From Molecularto Mathematical Medicine
Description: Having defined the decisionboundary we now show how the patient’sscore moves through space as he progressesfrom chronic liver disease to cancer over time.Before cancer develops the line is green, andafter the boundary is crossed it turns to red.The cancer is diagnosed at the last time -point. The time before the cancer isconfirmed by conventional imaging methodsis shown at the top of the figure.
Name: Valeria QuarantaMolecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine,University of Liverpool
Title: Overcoming resistance to ImmuneCheckpoint blockade in pancreatic cancer
Description: The use of immune checkpointblockers (ICBs) has shown therapeutic benefits inmany cancer types, but unfortunately not inmetastatic pancreatic cancer. Our new findingsreveal that certain stromal cells inhibit effectiveICB therapy in metastatic pancreatic cancer andthat stroma-targeted therapies overcome theresistance of pancreatic cancer to ICBsmonotherapy. The immunofluorescence imageshows increased cancer cell death aftercombining ICB treatment with stroma-targetingagents in a pre-clinical model of liver metastaticpancreatic cancer. Cancer cells shown in green,apoptotic cells (Cleaved Caspase 3 labelled)shown in red, nuclei are stained in blue.
Name: Lee Troughton
Institute of Ageing and Chronic Diseases,University of Liverpool
Title: “What a difference a splice site makes”
Description: LaNt a31 is made instead LMa3bwhen one of the LMa3b weak splice sites isn’trecognised properly. During cancer progressionand metastases the tight control of this process islost. Here we see the outcome of this, whereLaNt a31 (right images) and LMa3b (left images)almost completely switch expression profileswhen we compare normal tongue tissue (toppanels) and tongue squamous cell carcinomatissue from the same person (bottom panels).
Name: Andrew FieldingCellular and Molecular Physiology, University ofLiverpool
Title: Interstellar journey into dividing cancercells
Description: In this stellar landscape ofosteosarcoma (bone cancer) cells, the 5 cells atdifferent stages of cell division stand out. DNAchromosomes can be seen in blue, in red aremicrotubules, the cables which pull sisterchromatids apart during cell division and thestar-like green foci mark centromeres, wherethe red cables attach to the chromosomes.
Name: Sophie ThorntonMolecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine,University of Liverpool
Title: ‘Now you see it, Now you don't.’
Immunohistochemistry is an important tool inthe histopathologist’s bag of tricks. Presence orabsence of a colour can mean the differencebetween life and death for patients. The imageabove shows the difference between proteinexpression for BAP1, an important gene thatcontrols numerous cellular processes. Theimage on the left depicts a uveal melanomatumour that is expressing the BAP1 protein, theimage on the right shows complete loss of BAP1protein expression. The patient on the right willmost likely develop and die from metastaticdisease in the next 5 years. The patient on theleft will survive.
Name: Neil FarquharMolecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine,University of Liverpool
Title: A peak at the production mill
Description: If you were to ask most of your cellswhat they were up to, the chances are they’d say“Manufacturing cyclophilin B!”. The elegantdisplay of biochemical gymnastics which startswith genes and ends with proteins is put tocontinuous use to satiate the cell’s appetite forthis essential protein. The image is aparadoxically serine snapshot of the freneticcellular factories of the human pancreas. Eachred dot represents a molecule of cyclophilin BRNA. The RNA molecules linger in limbo betweenthe genes they once were and the proteins theyare about to become; each awaiting its destiny asanother actor on the grand stage of the cell.
