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Artist's impression of neuronal connections in a region of the mature cortex of the brain, based on a high resolution electron micrograph. Axons are shown in yellow, dendrites are shown in blue, synaptic vesicles are shown in gold or silver. 

Acrylic on canvas

Neuropil

Artist’s impression of neuronal organisation in the brain based on experiences and research in neuroanatomy. The light blue ovals are the nuclei of cells in darker blue. The green within the cells represents actomyosin (a protein complex composed of actin and myosin). The pink dots are centrosomes (important in the organisation of microtubles). The large red area is the embryonic ventricle (areas of the brain that contain cerebrospinal fluid). The image attempts to capture the dynamics of the proliferating brain.

Neuroepithelium, the developing brain

Neuronal migration is an artwork depicting many very young neurons that have been produced in the neuroepithelium migrating to their appropriate destinations in the brain. This image highlights the future of neuroscience showing different classes of cells colour coded. There is no available technique to do this now, but it is not far off considering the advances that have been made with brainbow mice. The brainbow technique allows for different cell types to be tagged with fluorescent proteins to track their development and connections with other cells.

Artist's impression of the cellular structure of part of the retina in the eye. Mueller glial cells (white) which provide architectural support and help maintain the integrity of the retina are highlighted here. Rods and cones are photoreceptors found in the outer layer of the retina, responsible for vision at low light and colour vision respectively. The outer segments of these photoreceptors (various colours; top of image) and their cell bodies (red) are depicted here. Horizontal and amacrine cells (green), bipolar cells (blue), displaced amacrine cells (purple) and retinal ganglion cells (copper) are also visible.



This acrylic painting was inspired by multi-coloured fluorescent proteins which are used to label different types of cells and different compartments inside a cell (e.g. nucleus, membrane, cytoplasm). This gives an instantaneous view of the spectrum of cell fates within the retina.

Mueller glial cells in the retina

Artist's impression of the cellular structure of part of a developing zebrafish retina. The retina is almost fully developed so all the cells have been born and have almost finished moving into one of three layers depicted here. The top layer is the ganglion cell layer which contains retinal ganglion cells. The middle layer (inner nuclear layer) contains horizontal cells (green), bipolar cells (yellow), Mueller cells (white) and amacrine cells (red). The cells in the bottom layer are cells of the outer nuclear layer (rods and cones). This acrylic painting was inspired by multi-coloured fluorescent proteins which are used to label different types of cells and different compartments inside a cell (e.g. nucleus, membrane, cytoplasm). This gives an instantaneous view of the spectrum of cell fates within a neural tissue.

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Neuropil

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Cell fates in zebrafish retina, acrylic painting

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Cell fates in zebrafish retina, acrylic painting

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