Microscopy competition

Students, researchers and imaging enthusiasts present their most impressive images from the world of the microcosm.
Each image is a cell-bration, because the images not only show scientific relevance, but also an extraordinary aesthetic quality.
Discover the fascinating variety of microscopic structures from the Biology department at RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau.

Microscopy image of the year 2025

Fabian Lukas - Colorful bindings

The image shows muscle precursor cells (myoblasts).

They use small "contact points" on their surface so that they can hold on and connect with each other. These were visualized with dyes: Green: a protein for cell anchoring (β5-integrin) Red: classic contact points (paxillin) Blue: special, less known contact points (stonin1)

Microscopy image of the year 2023

Dario Lasser - Drosozilla

Fluorescent image of a Drosophila image.

The picture shows the brain of a fly larva.

Nerve cords run from there to the muscles and control their movement. Special dyes were used to make nerve cells (blue/green) and muscles (magenta) visible.
The Leica Stellaris confocal microscope with a 10x air objective was used for the image.