Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

mmc2(1) from cscweb on Vimeo.

02 July 2015

Signalling Cancer

Gallbladder cancer is uniquely distributed globally, with most cases seen in India, Pakistan and Egypt. Risk factors include inflammation of the gallbladder and, markedly, infection with Salmonella Typhi bacteria. Salmonella is endemic in India and can lead to chronic infection when it enters the gallbladder. This epidemiological overlap led researchers to wonder if there’s a causal link with cancer. They found that when the bugs infect a cell they activate certain cellular molecules, which happen to help the bugs survive. It turns out that these molecules are the same ones that are crucial in the transformation of genetically predisposed cells to cancerous ones. Here, 2D images placed on top of each other create a ‘movie’ from multiple viewpoints. Shown are gallbladder cells (green and blue) grown as an ‘organoid’ in the lab, that have been infected with S. Typhi (red), allowing the team to study the transformation to cancer.

Written by Katie Panteli

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.