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Incredible images showcase moments of discovery at GOSH

Incredible images showcase moments of discovery at GOSH

28 Feb 2025, 9:02 a.m.

A surprising floral image helping researchers study Hirschsprung disease, a rare bowel disease in children, has been crowned the winner of the fourth annual National Institute for Health and Care Research Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC) image competition ‘A Moment of Discovery’.

Staff across Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and its affiliated institutes, including the NIHR GOSH BRC and University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH) were invited to submit an image that captured ‘a moment of discovery’ in their work.

The entries ranged from microscopy to photography to pencil drawings, and offered snapshots of the research and innovation taking place across GOSH to find new treatments for rare or complex conditions and transform the lives of seriously ill children and young people.

Twenty entries were shortlisted before being put before three panels – the GOSH Young Peoples’ Advisory Group for Research (YPAG), NIHR GOSH BRC colleagues and the GOSH staff networks. The panels selected three top images, and the overall winner was chosen by a public vote via social media.

After hundreds of votes across LinkedIn and Instagram the image crowned the winner was ‘Blooming Barrier’ by Lucy Holland, a PhD student working for GOSH and UCL GOS ICH.

Lucy said:

“I am honoured that my image resonated with the public. Perhaps the most exciting part of being a scientist is when the routine laboratory work leads to moments of unexpected wonder. While capturing my image, I was struck by how such a clinically important tissue sample could also be so beautiful. It reminded me that behind every biological sample and every data point, there's a young patient and their family who are placing their trust and hope into our research.

“It is a privilege to contribute to the groundbreaking work at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and I hope my image helps showcase both the hidden artistry in medical research and the vital work being done to advance children's healthcare.”

Lucy Holland

Exploring the impact of Hirschsprung disease

The fascinating winning image shows the colon of a patient with Hirschsprung disease, a congenital condition where children are born with some nerve cells missing in the large intestine.

Lucy’s research explores how the disease impacts this protective lining in the colon, which when stained and viewed under a microscope unexpectedly resembles a field of blue daisies. The individual ‘flowers’ in the image are colonic crypts - deep pockets in the colon tissue lining. The mucus barrier produced by specialised cells in these structures protects the intestines from harmful organisms and substances, while simultaneously facilitating nutrient absorption.

When this delicate architecture is disrupted by the condition, the protective barrier breaks down and the colon can become inflamed and experience tissue damage. Analysing these crypts can help to develop targeted preventive interventions for patients.

Dr Kiki Syrad, Director of Research and Innovation at GOSH, said:

“It’s wonderful to see such an amazing breadth of images that demonstrate the vast variety of research and innovation that takes place at GOSH and our collaborators. The floral imagery of the winning entry is so surprising and uplifting.”

Professor Thomas Voit, Director of NIHR GOSH Biomedical Research Centre, said:

“These intricate images represent the complexity that we are trying to make sense of through our research so we can translate our findings into everyday treatment. They would be equally at home in a science museum or an art gallery.”

Winner: Blooming Barrier, entered by Lucy Holland, PhD student

Lucy's image competition entry entitled 'blooming barrier'

Hirschsprung’s disease is a congenital condition where children are born with some nerve cells missing in their large intestine. This primarily affects the colon, which when stained and viewed under a microscope, unexpectedly resembles a field of delicate blue daisies. The individual ‘flowers’ in the image are colonic crypts - deep pockets in the colon tissue lining.

Panel favourite: Little Brain, entered by Reem Alkharji, PhD candidate in stem cell and gene therapy

Reem's entry to the image competition showing an image of a brain organoid.

The neurons in the brain communicate to help us think, move, and feel. Studying these cells is crucial for understanding behavioural and cognitive problems in conditions like Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which causes progressive muscle weakness. Creating a brain cell environment outside the body using organoids in a dish allows us to closely examine how these cells behave in disease situations. This image shows a part of healthy brain organoid in a stage of differentiation.

Panel favourite: Custom Craniofacial Implants, entered by Luke Smith, 3D Engineer

Children who are either born with a bone irregularity or have a traumatic injury, often need reconstructive surgery to repair their bone structure. By designing and producing bespoke implants tailored to each specific child, we can achieve better patient satisfaction, reduce risks, lower blood transfusions, achieve better visual outcomes and reduce surgical times.

Shortlisted entries

A moment of discovery, entered by Dr Alina Harrington, Doctor. This image shows Mr Dominic Thompson, a paediatric neurosurgeon at GOSH, looking at brain scans of patients requiring surgery. He always makes the same hand gestures when he is deep in thought, looking for his ‘moment of discovery’.
Floweroid, entered by Giada Benedetti, PhD student. This image shows a colourful stomach organoid, which is a 3D mini-organ created from a patient’s stomach cells. Creating these organoids allows researchers to model a genetic condition called congenital glycosylation disorder that causes symptoms in the stomach lining and study what’s happening at a cellular level.
Woven Healing: Electrospun Scaffolds to treat Liver Disease, entered by Dr Hassan Rashidi, Catalyst Fellow. The image shows synthetic structures (called scaffolds) that can be used to support cells inside the human body, taken from research on cell-based therapies for liver disease in children. The scaffolds are made from fibres that are 10 times thinner than human skin. The image shows the scaffold at 2000x magnification and compares it to the thickness of a human hair to show just how small these fibres are.
Organ of Corti, entered by James Arwyn-Jones, Lewis Spitz Surgeon Scientist PhD Fellow. This is a microscopic image of a mouse’s organ of Corti, a sensory organ that helps with hearing which sits inside the cochlea in the inner ear. We use the mouse cochlea to study how hair cells work and survive, which enables us to better understand human inner ear disease like genetic hearing loss.
Epithelial traffic lights, entered by Dr Maximillian, Research Fellow. This image shows cells from the lining of the nose, colour-coded to reveal how avian flu virus can interact with them. Red, yellow, and green signals show how easy it is for the virus to attach to each cell and therefore how vulnerable they are to infection. This provides valuable insights into how the virus might spread in the respiratory tract and potentially guide strategies to block these pathways in the future.
Organoid constellation, entered by Sandra Castro, Post-Doctoral Researcher. This image is a composite of images of 30-day old cells that mimic those found in the liver. These were made by adding specific growth factors and nutrients to stem cells at specified stages and means we can mimic human liver cell development, helping us to address basic questions related to models of liver disease.
Lung supernova, entered by Giuseppe Calà, Post-Doctoral Researcher. This image shows a lung organoid, a miniature replica of the human lung of a fetus, grown from cells obtained from patients with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). By using these lung organoids, we can observe how the lungs develop at a cellular level, identify what happens in CDH, and explore potential treatments while the baby is still in the womb.
Threads of Life: Vimentin in Motion, entered by Sara Anuar, PhD Researcher. This image showcases a two-day-old zebrafish embryo, highlighted with a special marker that reveals a protein called vimentin. This plays a vital role in cellular structure and development of the nervous system and offers valuable insights into the structural and molecular causes of microcephaly, a condition where a baby’s head is smaller than expected.
Arc of Riolan, entered by Dr Jelena Stojanovic, Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist. This image shows a 3D model of the main blood vessels in the abdomen of a child who needs a kidney auto transplant (moving the kidney from one position in the body to another). 3D modelling helps surgeons plan better for surgery and explain what the procedure will involve to patients and families, making the consent process more informative.