Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells--Judges' Award Winner, Participant Category Faculty/Scientist. In Art of Science

Caption: Retinal ganglion cells in the whole-mounted mouse retina
Participant category: Faculty/Scientist
Department: Neurosciences

Transduction of AAV2-GFP expression in the flat mounted mouse retina. Double labeling of Brn3a (blue) and GFP (yellow) in flat-mounted mouse retina. Note that GFP expression was observed in the somas and axons of RGCs. While working on a project focusing on the visual pathway, I tend to work with retinal ganglion cells quite often. This is because the retinal ganglion cell is one of the key components in the transportation of visual information from the eye to the brain. Imaging of retinal ganglion cells is an essential tool in measuring the level of damage sustained in the eye. I wanted to show the public that beauty lies not only in what is visible to the human eye but also in the unseen, particularly in the body’s central nervous system. I felt that this image captured the beauty of the retinal ganglion cells in whole-mount retina samples. It is amazing to see that microscopic structures that the naked eye cannot detect can be so intricately and artistically organized. The movement of connecting the world of microscopic science and the public is something I have always wanted to be a part of, and I feel that through UCSD library's research data curation program I was able to do so.