Titel: Outreach 

Medium: Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope

“The image shows an isolated neuron – a brain cell consisting of a cell body, long branching extensions, and a network of connections that allow it to send and receive signals. In this cell, internal stress is marked in green, and my goal is to understand how neurons cope with this kind of strain. In this experiment, I intended to visualize stress in different parts of the neuron. But due to a technical error, I was only able to highlight stress on the cell’s surface, shown in orange. This unexpected limitation made me think of a human parallel: how periods of isolation – suggested by the white background – can amplify the stress we carry inside. Neurons are built to reach out and communicate with one another. Perhaps we can learn from them and reach out when we ourselves feel under pressure.”

Vivek Sanjay Belapurkar, 

Postdoc in Chao Sun’s Lab, DANDRITE