QMUL Festival of Communities

The QMUL Festival of Communitites came to a conclusion on Saturday 4^th June with the QMUL Campus Festival at Mile End. The day consisted of departments from across the university holding talks and workshops and running interactive hands-on activitites with visitors.

The aim of the day - and the festival as a whole - was to bring local communitites together and give the public an opportunity to see the university campus.

Visitors to BCI's imagery stand

The BCI had an exlusive photographic installation at the festival: Bringing Cancer Research to Life, which showcased some of the beautiful science imagery that refelcts the ground-breaking work carried out at the Barts Centre. Researchers submitted their scientific images and five of the most striking were chosen to for canvas printing.

The installation gave the public the opportunity to see what researchers sometimes see under the microscope and how it relates to work being going on in the labs. BCI staff and students volunteered their time to be at the stall and speak with the public, talk about their research and answer any questions.

As well as the art installation the BCI had a number of interactive hands-on activities that allowed visitors to understand the basic science that underpins the research going on in the lab and some key aspects of translational, clinical work.

About the Images - L-R

Two cancer cells dividing

An electron micrograph of two oral squamous carcinoma cells in a migration assay (a test to see how much cells move around - key to cancer spreading, or metastasis) almost completing cell division - also called cytokinesis. By Professor John Marshall.

A 3D reconstruction of a breast duct

This confocalmicroscopy image recently won the computer modelling category in an image competition, and you can read all about it in this short piece. Here, two different normal breast cell types from the Tissue Bank have come together in laboratory conditions to recreate the kind of structure found in normal breast tissue. By Dr Ed Carter.

Cancer cell entering a matrix "tunnel"

An electron micrograph of one oral cancer cell in a migration assay on its journey across and through a protein surface. Observing the front end of this cell revealed a complex response to a gradient of chemicals. The 'feeler' structures at the cell membrane edge suggest something dissolved in the surrounding liquid affecting the cell's direction of movement. By Professor John Marshall.

Shape-shifting mouse mammary glands

Fluorescence microscopy of four different experimental "organoid" structures made from normal mouse breast cells. By Dr Teresa Arnandis.

• Bottom-right: an invasive duct structure on the left juxtaposed with a normal structure, showing the difference between how breast cancer behaves compared to normal tissue.
• Bottom-left: adding proteins to the cells' liquid feeding medium causes invasive behaviour in the duct structure.
• Top-left: "branching morphogenesis" or formation of new duct structures in a 3D environment.
• Top-right: mouse mammary gland organoid with some cells (red and green) infected with a virus.

Two cancer cells invade into a collagen matrix

A transmission electron micrograph cross-section of two oral cancer cells in a collagen (rope-like structures) matrix. There is not much detailed imagery available of how cancer cells invade into their surrounding tissue. One idea is an "epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition" or EMT, which describes a change in cell shape and behaviour.

However, here the cells are invading together and have not undergone EMT. They send out protein enzymes ahead of them to break down the matrix and clear a path for their movement. This image shows that this only happens at the invasive "front" end of the cells. By Professor John Marshall.

With thanks to all of our researchers who submitted images, our visitors, and volunteers on the day: Marianne Baker, Natalia Bodrug, Paul Grevitt, Sara Heuss, Glyn Jones, Rita Pedrosa and Janine Powell.