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

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Movember - men's health awareness month Power Cut
15 November 2016

Power Cut

When studying complex conditions, understanding the mechanisms behind differences in disease severity between patients can be a helpful way forwards. For example, researchers investigating why prostate cancer is both more prevalent and more deadly in African Americans than those of European descent have recently identified a new oncogene involved in prostate cancer, known as MNX1. More active in African American patients, and to a lesser extent in severely-affected European Americans, than in healthy individuals, it boosts the process of lipogenesis, the synthesis of fatty acids. Pictured in red in prostate cancer cells (nuclei shown in blue), fatty acids are an important source of energy for growing tumours, and key markers of aggressive prostate cancer. Variation in the importance of MNX1 in tumour progression appears to be a major difference between prostate cancer types, while disrupting lipogenesis, cutting off the tumours’ energy supplies, could represent a promising new means of treatment.

Movember, raising awareness of men's health issues.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

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.