PhD Candidate Fazeleh Etebar has been selected as a finalist QUT photography competition “Research in Focus”. The images must be original visual representation of unique research methods, practices and findings of QUT research.
Blossom of the eye
This is a confocal fluorescence microscopy image of mouse retina. The colours represent the: vasculature (gold) and microglia (blue). Microglia as the resident immune cells of central nervous system (CNS), are adapted to microenvironment of different regions of the CNS. Using immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy we compared phenotypic heterogeneity of microglia in different regions of CNS including neural retina.
“The retinal vasculature is my favorite. It’s vasculature structure is so beautiful and the visual reward when working on retinal microglia is satisfying,” says Fazeleh.
Ms Etebar PhD project is characterisation of novel immune cell subsets in the central nervous system and its supporting tissues” which is critical for being able to understand immunobiology of the CNS. Thus far, her work revealed that microglia in different regions of the healthy mouse CNS are phenotypically, transcriptionally, and functionally heterogeneous and highly adapted to their microenvironment. She is part of Neuroimmunology and Infection Research Group.