For night 30 of #31NightsofHalloween #MicrosCreepy, here are some amoebae squished under a jello-like pad. The flashes you see are contractile vacuole pumping events-- this organelle colllects and expels water (like bailing water out of a boat!)

For night 28 of #31NightsOfHalloween #MicrosCreepy,
IT'S ALIVE! These are reanimated cell "ghosts," which are cells that have had their membranes/cytoplasm washed away, leaving the cytoskeleton behind. Adding ATP activates myosin motors, which causes contraction!

Happy #MicroscopyMonday!
Here is a kymograph of a cell crawling into a microchannel. Each horizontal row of pixels represents a line drawn from outside (green) through a channel (purple) at 5 second timepoints. ~1/2 way down (20 min) a cell fully enters the channel and takes off!

Happy #MicroscopyMonday! Here are somme amoebae crawling into channels

LUT: JDM_Phase Ink Mint-Cherry

Happy #MicroscopyMonday!

Happy #MicroscopyMonday, from an amoeba crawling in a very narrow channel!

I am actively recruiting students for my lab at UMass Dartmouth!

Are you interested in a project on actin, amoebae, cell migration, and/or pathogenesis? Send me an email & apply to the Integrative Biology PhD program by Jan 15!

Please RT
More info: https://katrinavelle.wixsite.com/science

28/ #31NightsOfHalloween #MicrosCreepy A flagellate cell stained for microtubules

23/ #31nightsofhalloween #microscreepy
Here is some actin cytoskeleton staining of cells crawling into microchannels.

22/#31nightsofhalloween #MicrosCreepy
Dissolving crystals from an old, dried-up sample

21/#31nightsofhalloween #MicrosCreepy
Naegleria are crawling amoebae most of the time, but when stressed, they can grow two flagella (same structure as sperm tails) to swim away. This cell was stained for microtubules, which form flagella and an extensive network in the cell body beneath the plasma membrane.

20/ #31nightsofhalloween #microscreepy
amoeba pumpkin!

19/ #31NightsOfHalloween #microscreepy

Some actin cytoskeletons and nuclei appearing out of nowhere...

during my OneStep fix and stain protocol

18/ #31nightsofhalloween #MicrosCreepy
Here's an amoeba imaged by scanning electron microscreepy!

17/ #31NightsofHalloween #MicrosCreepy
Here's a closer look at the cell division fail from yesterday. The contractile vacuole network gets distributed through the cell during division- here you can see tubules converting to bladders that pump unusually synchronously

16/ #31nightsofhalloween #MicrosCreepy
These are the cells that created yesterday's maximum intensity projection! Featuring one failed cell division, and one successful cell division. Lots of contractile vacuole activity.

15/ #31NightsOfHalloween #MicrosCreepy
A max intensity projection of crawling and dividing cells

14/ #31NightsOfHalloween #MicrosCreepy
some amoebae stained for actin polymer

13/ #31NightsOfHalloween #MicrosCreepy
Here's some amoebae squashed under an agarose pad, imaged using IRM and Phase Contrast (second half only). The bright flashes are contractile vacuole pumping events!