Joe McKellar

🔬 Imaged with a @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social LSM880.

​🔗 Check out the AGFG1 antibody here: www.ptglab.com/products/AGF...

Delivery vehicles in a storm 🚚🌩️

​The 🔵 is an influenza A virus storm overtaking these lung cells. The 🟠 is the AGFG1 transport vehicles braving the storm. And the 🟡 is the nucleus, struggling to keep control.

​Kicking off a month-long collaboration w/ @proteintech.bsky.social

​#fluorescencefriday

Thank you! I'm happy they are finding their audience 😁

Deconstructing the cell's immune system.

​This is a Vero cell expressing the antiviral Human MX1 dynamin-like large GTPase (my pet protein).
It is ready to fight back, when a viral invader arrives!

​🟠 MX1
🔵 Actin
⚪ DNA
​
#SciArt #Virology #MX1 #Microscopy #Fluorescence

A high-contrast fluorescence microscopy image of Vero E6 cells. The cytoskeleton (actin filaments) is stained in bright gold, appearing as a network that stretches across the cells. The nuclei are stained in cyan blue, looking like oval sapphires embedded within the gold structure. The cells appear to be gripping the surface, displaying high tension.

The Gold Standard.

​These are Vero E6 cells (African Green Monkey kidney), the workhorses of virology.

They lack interferon, making them the perfect host for viral research.

​Today, they are just pristine jewels.

​💛 Gold: Actin
🩵 Sapphire: Nuclei

#SciArt #Virology #FluorescenceFriday

A fluorescence microscopy image of A549 lung cells infected with influenza A virus. The image is chaotic and colorful. The cytoplasm is filled with bright cyan viral nucleoprotein. Gold microtubules form a dense network, and pink recycling endosomes are scattered throughout. Green nuclei are visible in the center of the cells.

Project X: Cellular Edition. 🥳

​This influenza infection went way too hard. 24h later, the virus (🔵) is swinging from the chandeliers (🟠 microtubules) and there are empty bottles everywhere (🩷 recycling endosomes).

​Biology is beautiful chaos.

#Virology #Microscopy #Flu #SciArt #MicroscopyMonday

Thanks!
In these experiments there is around 20% of "virus-inside-a-virus" particles and the rest are free. This % depends on the helper virus!
And yes, free particles can have glycoproteins!
The paper has just been accepted so you'll be able to read all about it in greater detail soon! 😄

Imaged with a @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social LSM989 + Airyscan 2.

Biology’s Fashion Week. 💅
​PANTONE 11-4201 "Cloud Dancer" is the 2026 Color of the Year.
​I checked under the scope and found:
The Nuclei is stuck in 2025 (Mocha Mousse).
The Actin is already rocking the 2026 minimalism.
​Nature is the ultimate designer.
#Pantone2026 #SciArt #FluorescenceFriday

Imaged with a @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social LSM980.

​High-contrast fluorescence microscopy of a mouse fibroblast cell. The cell glows in neon cyberpunk colors. Cyan actin filaments form the outer shape, magenta microtubules fill the center, and an orange DNA nucleus sits in the middle.

Biology in Cyberpunk mode.

​Who said nature needs to stick to earth tones? This NIH3T3 cell has adopted the full vaporwave palette.

​Turning a lab workhorse into a neon light show.

​🩵 Actin
💜 Tubulin
🧡 DNA

Sometimes science just looks cool.

​#SciArt #Vaporwave #Microscopy #actin #Fluorescence

Imaged with a @oxfordinstruments.bsky.social Dragonfly Spinning Disk Confocal microscope 🔬

The Big Crunch.
The Big Bang.
And the expansion that follows.

​Not a simulation of the early universe, but a single A549 cell dividing.

Watch the Rab11a endosomes rush like a supply fleet. One life becoming two.

​Cosmology on a cellular scale.

​#SciArt #Microscopy #Fluorescencefriday #BigBang

🔬 Imaged with a @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social LSM980 + Airyscan 2.

High-contrast fluorescence microscopy of a human fibroblast cell. A golden web of actin filaments radiates outward like a starburst, forming angles, parallels and geometric stars. Cyan septin structures form scaffolds. A grey DNA nucleus sits in the center. A snapshot of the chaotic beauty, found at the center of biology.

​ At first glance, chaos.

Looking closer at this human fibroblast however, angles, parallels, and geometric stars appear.

Order in biology is often disguised as chaos. Beautiful chaos.

A golden web spun from the fabric of life.

​💛 Gold: Actin
🩵 Cyan: Septin 7
🩶 Grey: DNA

#SciArt #Microscopy

Boa Constrictor Brain Cells Slither into Focus From reptiles and Tasmanian devils to humans, one researcher zooms in on unseen features of the brain and liver cells, like the cytoskeleton.

@viroscope.bsky.social (@karimaj.bsky.social team) partage dans The Scientist ses travaux sur les deltavirus et l’imagerie de cellules, des cellules humaines aux cellules de boa constrictor 🐍.

👉 Lire l’article : “Boa Constrictor Brain Cells Slither into Focus”
www.the-scientist.com/boa-constric...

Thanks so much! That means so much to me 🤩
Working with MX1 proteins was definitely not easy, but coming across this mechanism felt super rewarding!
My question now is: what about the mechanisms behind the early stage blocks of the avian flus? 😄

Go and vote for @dianabrychka.bsky.social's stunning image of a brain organoid ! 🤩

A Boa Constrictor brain-derived cell expressing a viral glycoprotein (magenta) and stained for actin (yellow) and DNA (white).

#FluorescenceFriday

HFF cells stained for DNA ⚪, intermediate filaments 🟠, microtubules 🔴 and actin 🔵.

#FluorescenceFriday
#SciArt

Aha thank you for the compliment!

For #FluorescenceFriday, a field of individual VSV (rod-shaped, in 🟧) and Deltavirus (dot-shaped, in 🔵) particles imaged by STED (20nm per pixel).

We now know that Deltaviruses can package inside particles of other viruses.

Can you find any of these dual particles in this field?

Beautiful image!

🔬✨ Today for #FluorescenceFriday:
A close-up of the dorsal part of the first gill arch in a mature zebrafish.
The intricate vascular network supporting respiration, visualized using kdrl:mcherry.

#Zebrafish #DevBio #Microscopy #Fluorescence #SciArt

Viruses in the forest of the lungs.

Human airway epithelia stained for actin 🟢 and SARS-CoV-2 RNA 🟣.

#FluorescenceFriday
#SciArt

Thank you for sharing our work! It was great discussing with you at #ECV2025 !

Saw this presented at ECV 2025. Fanastic and thought provoking work! Congrats to @viroscope.bsky.social, @karimaj.bsky.social and coauthors.

Deltaviruses spread through a viral Trojan Horse Hepatitis D-like viral satellites, known as deltaviruses, have been recently discovered in a wide range of animals. These viruses are thought to expropriate glycoproteins from helper viruses to form i...

Deltaviruses spread through a viral Trojan Horse www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Deltaviruses spread through a viral Trojan Horse https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.09.653040v1

Deltaviruses spread through a viral Trojan Horse https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.09.653040v1