2024 Cells I See Gallery
2023 Cells I See Gallery
2022 Cells I See Gallery
2021 Cells I See Gallery
2020 Cells I See Gallery
2019 Cells I See Gallery
2018 Cells I See Gallery
2017 Cells I See Gallery

The image is shown through a microscopic view of endothelial cells that have been trypsinized. The image is portrayed as Earth, referring to it as a world for stem cells since endothelial cells can be used for the growth of stem cells.

Neurons, differentiated from human embryonic stem cells, stained with DAPI, beta-TubulinIII (white) and Ki67 (red), remind me of the classic movie The Matrix. “The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you out your window or when you turn on yo...

The sketch represents how I see a stems cells' potential--- a single cells can develop " bloom " and differentiate into a variety of types of cells. The base of the vase represents the pluripotent stem cells and the cells that it differentiates into such as other precursors, neuron, blood, intestina...

Inspired by Andy Warhol’s artwork depicted in this photo is an array of skeletal muscle tissue fibroblasts and nuclei arranged in diverse colours.

A transverse section of a skeletal muscle imaged with a confocal microscope.

Here we show a GFP-positive newly formed ensheathing/myelinating oligodendrocyte observed after a contusion spinal cord injury in a PDGFRaCreER: Rosa26-mGFP(mT/mG) transgenic mouse spinal cord. Our lab recently showed that PDGFRa+ oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) can form multiple different gl...

There is always a light at the end of the tunnel… keep dreaming!



This jellyfish-like structure is composed of a neural aggregate differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells with drug releasing microparticles. The tentacle-like projections of the neurites growing and reaching out to form connections resemble a jellyfish swimming in the ocean.

Axonal threads fling themselves from the neural aggregate like flares from the sun. Human induced pluripotent stem cells were differentiated into neural tissue.

A Neuronal Network in a Dish: These neurons have been formed by the differentiation of adult human spinal cord neural cells, which represent a promising endogenous target for treating spinal cord disorders.

3D illustration inspired by SEM images of stem cells with a cinematic flare.

Human dopaminergic neurons differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells in the microfluidics devices created by the company ANANDA Devices.

Image of neural progenitor cells that spontaneously differentiated into neurons (Tuj1+) in yellow and oligodendrocytes (O4+) in red. Cells appear as supernovas, dancing and dazzling in the night sky.

Cells are constantly competing with one another for nutrients and space. Sometimes, "winner" cells will directly eliminate their less-fit ("loser") neighbours. As a result of competition, elite cells may take over the population. In this watercolour piece, pointillism is used to capture competition ...

Much like a growing tree, cells can sense their environment & let it guide their growth & fate. This hand-drawn illustration represents how synergistic signaling can trigger cascades of regulatory events and impact T cell lineage commitment. The Tree of Fate connects the endogenous genetic p...

Glycogen storage revealed by Period acid-Schiff staining in IPSCs-derived hepatocytes.

“One image is worth a thousand words.” This image represents the beauty of the 3D cell culture.

Radial glial are a type of stem cell which have long processes spanning the brain. Radial glia rise to new brain cells, which use the processes as a path to travel to their final destination. Though they are not present in all adult animals, reptiles such as the gecko (studied in our lab), keep them...

This image depicts a rat brain that has been transplanted with human neural stem cells. Human cells are coloured red, and migrating cells (both rat and human) are coloured green. Overlap between red and green (yellow) represents migrating human cells. In this image I see migrating human cells sweepi...

Human umbilical cord derived stem cells differentiating into cardiomyocytes. Stainings: human nuclear antigene, sarcomeric actinin, SERCA, DAPI.

Human umbilical cord derived stem cells differentiation into cardiomycytes. Stainings: human nuclear antigene, sarcomeric actinin, SERCA, DAPI.

The differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells into a more mature phenotype is not 100% efficient. Here were see the evolution of two distinct cell types form the same culture.

Some people perform better when under pressure. Likewise, some cells thrive when subjected to microscale forces. Here, we are studying the effect of tensional forces on induced pluripotent stem cell differentiation by micropatterning culture surfaces.

Like rubber around an electric wire, the cells in pink here insulate the electric message-conducting neurons in your brain, letting them send messages faster and more efficiency. They are called “oligodendrocytes,” which translates to “cells with many branches,” and they’re some of the las...

Macrophages (CD68+, green) express arginase-1 (Arg-1, yellow) when infiltrating an intramuscularly injected hydrogel containing rat adipose-derived stem/stromal cells (red). DAPI counterstain (blue).



























2016 Cells I See Gallery
New hope for patients suffering from degenerative eye disease. New source for retinal pigmented epithelium is being discovered and characterized in our lab.
Murine cortical stem and precursor cells were electroporated in utero with piggy bac cytoplasmic GFP and the piggy bac transposase expression constructs. The piggy bac system allows GFP to be incorporated into genomic DNA thereby indelibly labeling progeny of electroporated cells. E14.5 electroporat...
This is a picture of bone marrow-derived stem cells that have differentiated into adipocytes. After a week of being cultured in adipogenic media, they were stained for fat (LipidTox – green fluorescent dye). The blue in the picture is DAPI staining. It was exciting seeing the distinct lipid drople...
Isolated neural stem and precursor cells from E13 murine developing cortex were transfected with cytoplasmic GFP. Transfected cells were cultured for 7 days in vitro. This image is of a single cortical neuron transfected with GFP (green).
This picture is of hemangioma-derived stem cells that have been put into adipogenic media for several days. Although adipogenesis is not as prominent, you can still see some differentiation in the background (stained green with LipidTox). However, the DAPI staining was clearly a success, and the pat...
Shown here are three neurons made from stem cells that are connecting with each other in a linear chain. Neurons transmit messages along these chains, and it is the many billions of connections like these that are responsible for everything we can do and perceive. It is through the plasticity of the...
These ghost-like shapes that seem to be floating beneath an icy surface are actually astrocytes differentiated from mouse embryonic neural stem cells. They have been pseudocoloured here for an eerie effect to reflect that these cells are still a mystery to researchers. Though they are very numerous ...
This image is a homage to Lawrence Krauss’s quote: “One of the most poetic facts I know about the universe is that essentially every atom in your body was once inside a star that exploded. Moreover, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than did those in your right. We ...
Jack’s uncle underwent a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Jack [age 5 ½] looked up “stem cells” on the Internet and created this picture for his uncle. The picture is how Jack sees blood stem cells.
Stained for blood vessel cells (endothelial cells) within the iris of a mouse, flat mount, confocal image. Stained with markers/antibodies for: CD31 (endothelial cells), col IV (collagen), Lectin (endothelial cells).
Imagine seeing a flower in a culture dish. How happy your day will be!
Immunofluorescent image of mitochondria present in muscle stem cells.
Immunofluorescent image of adipocytes present along muscle fascia.
In the past month I started combining my passion in art and hand-lettering with science. Through creative imagery and storytelling, my hope is to engage the public and reveal the fascinating world of stem cell research. This collage is a small collection of my recent artworks (posted on Instagram vi...
Combining hand-lettering, art, and science. This is one of the artworks that I posted on Instagram (@itslike-pudding) in hopes to engage the general public with our fascinating world of stem cell research. I collect interesting images from my colleagues or my own research, and turn them into mini-st...
This image “models” a well known Banksy art of a little girl reaching for a fly away balloon. In this image, a girl is reaching for lung organoids generated from pluripotent stem cells. The organoids have been stained for both nuclear and cell surface proteins. In the background are floating lun...
The picture “Neural Strawberries” is an unmodified immunostaining image of neural progenitor cells that are generated from embryonic stem cells in the lab. The beautiful red specks are from nuclear protein staining while the leafy green is from cell surface staining.
Micro-patterned human embryonic stem cell colony induced to initiate developmental fate patterning.

New hope for patients suffering from degenerative eye disease. New source for retinal pigmented epithelium is being discovered and characterized in our lab.

Murine cortical stem and precursor cells were electroporated in utero with piggy bac cytoplasmic GFP and the piggy bac transposase expression constructs. The piggy bac system allows GFP to be incorporated into genomic DNA thereby indelibly labeling progeny of electroporated cells. E14.5 electroporat...

This is a picture of bone marrow-derived stem cells that have differentiated into adipocytes. After a week of being cultured in adipogenic media, they were stained for fat (LipidTox – green fluorescent dye). The blue in the picture is DAPI staining. It was exciting seeing the distinct lipid drople...

Isolated neural stem and precursor cells from E13 murine developing cortex were transfected with cytoplasmic GFP. Transfected cells were cultured for 7 days in vitro. This image is of a single cortical neuron transfected with GFP (green).

This picture is of hemangioma-derived stem cells that have been put into adipogenic media for several days. Although adipogenesis is not as prominent, you can still see some differentiation in the background (stained green with LipidTox). However, the DAPI staining was clearly a success, and the pat...

Shown here are three neurons made from stem cells that are connecting with each other in a linear chain. Neurons transmit messages along these chains, and it is the many billions of connections like these that are responsible for everything we can do and perceive. It is through the plasticity of the...

These ghost-like shapes that seem to be floating beneath an icy surface are actually astrocytes differentiated from mouse embryonic neural stem cells. They have been pseudocoloured here for an eerie effect to reflect that these cells are still a mystery to researchers. Though they are very numerous ...

This image is a homage to Lawrence Krauss’s quote: “One of the most poetic facts I know about the universe is that essentially every atom in your body was once inside a star that exploded. Moreover, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than did those in your right. We ...

Jack’s uncle underwent a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Jack [age 5 ½] looked up “stem cells” on the Internet and created this picture for his uncle. The picture is how Jack sees blood stem cells.

Stained for blood vessel cells (endothelial cells) within the iris of a mouse, flat mount, confocal image. Stained with markers/antibodies for: CD31 (endothelial cells), col IV (collagen), Lectin (endothelial cells).

Imagine seeing a flower in a culture dish. How happy your day will be!

Immunofluorescent image of mitochondria present in muscle stem cells.

Immunofluorescent image of adipocytes present along muscle fascia.

In the past month I started combining my passion in art and hand-lettering with science. Through creative imagery and storytelling, my hope is to engage the public and reveal the fascinating world of stem cell research. This collage is a small collection of my recent artworks (posted on Instagram vi...

Combining hand-lettering, art, and science. This is one of the artworks that I posted on Instagram (@itslike-pudding) in hopes to engage the general public with our fascinating world of stem cell research. I collect interesting images from my colleagues or my own research, and turn them into mini-st...

This image “models” a well known Banksy art of a little girl reaching for a fly away balloon. In this image, a girl is reaching for lung organoids generated from pluripotent stem cells. The organoids have been stained for both nuclear and cell surface proteins. In the background are floating lun...

The picture “Neural Strawberries” is an unmodified immunostaining image of neural progenitor cells that are generated from embryonic stem cells in the lab. The beautiful red specks are from nuclear protein staining while the leafy green is from cell surface staining.

Micro-patterned human embryonic stem cell colony induced to initiate developmental fate patterning.




















2015 Cells I See Gallery