A dramatic image captured at the University of Glasgow has been selected as among the best in an annual competition.
The ‘Reflections of Research’ image competition run by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) runs every year.
Combining the beauty and mystery of art and science, the competition challenges researchers to showcase awe-inspiring displays of lifesaving research.
‘Clinging on to Life’ was submitted by BHF-funded researcher Kyle Shead.
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The image shows how the beating of a heart can be recreated in the laboratory, using skin cells.
The skin cells were transformed into stem cells – remarkable cells which can transform into any type of cell found in the human body – which were ‘reprogrammed’ to become heart muscle cells. Incredibly, these cells ‘beat’ in a lab dish, at approximately 60 beats per minute, like they would in someone’s chest.
Researchers are examining the structures within these cells to help cancer patients whose hearts are damaged by the powerful drugs used to fight the disease.
These drugs can weaken the heart’s pumping ability or cause an irregular heartbeat.
Studying cells exposed to anti-cancer drugs, using fluorescent dyes, helps researchers understand how they are damaged.
Pictured in green in the image is troponin – a protein which helps the heart muscle contract to pump blood – and the blue dots are DNA inside a cell.
Everyone is unique, and individual people will respond differently to different cancer drugs. If someone’s skin cells are taken and transformed into heart cells, which are then exposed to various cancer drugs in the lab, this could reveal which drug is best for that person to take in order to reduce their risk of heart complications.
Kyle Shead said: “I am delighted to be recognised in the British Heart Foundation’s Reflections of Research competition, and to share this striking image capturing the inner workings of heart cells.
“Our ability to transform skin cells into beating heart cells, and investigate the mechanisms by which heart cells become damaged by cancer therapies, highlights the power that research holds to bring breakthroughs from the lab to the people who need them.
"We hope to ultimately reduce the toxic side effects of cancer therapy, in order to protect people’s hearts through every stage of their treatment, and in the years afterwards.”
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