Approaching microscopy as art can give your science impact

Derek Sung wanted to show his family and friends what he was doing during his one-year internship at the NIH, so he created the @immunofluorescence Instagram account to share some of the images he was taking in the lab. Four years on, now in a PhD/MD programme in cardiovascular and reproductive development at the University of Pennsylvania, Sung’s Instagram has grown along with him. He has more than 25,000 followers: some are there to appreciate the artistic side of his work, admiring the colours and patterns of the fluorescent cell structures. But others are students and scientists interested in learning how to make their own images stand out and enhance the impact of their research.

High-quality microscopy images are crucial for any cell biologist as a way to present their results, even for those who aren’t planning to share them on social media. “Your data are only as good as your images,” says Sung. Clean and crisp immunofluorescence visuals make attractive figures in presentations and publications, but Sung explains that they also generate more trust in the data by revealing where they came from. "You can't just show a graph," he says. "You need a representation of how you derived the data, and that's often an image."

Building intuition through troubleshooting

Sharing his images over the past few years has taught Sung skills that he regularly shares with others in his department and online. One thing he has become good at is the ability to effectively troubleshoot the imaging process.

“With imaging, there’s an intuition you develop over time,” Sung says. In that sense, it’s like learning how to create art, but it's something that can be practised and learned. “Maybe a better word for it is pattern recognition,” he adds. Sung describes it as a skill that helps him quickly spot when an image doesn’t look right, such as whether the background is too bright or cell structures aren’t clear. And learning how to generate clear images by being able to spot when the protocol needs adjusting gave him more confidence in his scientific results.

Sung also tries to eliminate potential problems up front, reducing the need for downstream troubleshooting. “When you do this for a long time, you identify reagents that work well for you,” he says. Among his regulars are secondary antibodies from Jackson ImmunoResearch, which he has used to image cells and tissues in mouse embryos and in endothelial cells (in photos on this page) as well as many others. "It's really nice knowing that, with their products, you can count on the intensity, longevity and specificity of the antibody."

Sung is nearing the end of the PhD part of his course, and heading into two years of medical school for his MD. After that he plans to use his expertise in vascular biology to specialize as OB/GYN and study the placenta. Microscopy will be a part of that path as well. “It's something I'm going to hang on to for the rest of my career,” he says.

Art and science will continue in parallel. Immunofluorescence is one of the ways researchers often visualize placental cells. And as for artistic value: Sung’s work was recently listed as an Image of Distinction in the 2021 Nikon Small World photomicroscopy competition.

For anyone planning to use immunofluorescence imaging, Sung’s advice is to ask for help while you develop your skills. “That’s a lot of time and anguish you’ll save.” With support, on top of practice and the right reagents, anyone can learn to create high-quality immunofluorescence images, and bring an otherwise hidden world to light.