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Surrey scientist’s ‘A Listeria Flower of Death’ a finalist in photo contest

‘Many of the contest pictures are truly beautiful,’ says Arandeep (Aaron) Dhanda
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“A Listeria Flower of Death” photo by Arandeep (Aaron) Dhanda.

Surrey-raised scientist Arandeep (Aaron) Dhanda hopes to win a photo contest with a creation he calls “A Listeria Flower of Death.”

Dhanda is among two 20 finalists in a Canada-wide “Science Exposed” competition hosted by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), with all images of scientific research.

A microscopy image of Listeria bacteria was submitted by Dhanda, a recent Ph.D. graduate from Simon Fraser University’s biological sciences department.

“It’s a very competitive contest,” noted Dhanda, among just two B.C.-based finalists vying for one of four prizes of $2,000 each.

“Many of the contest pictures are truly beautiful and I feel they highlight the beauty in science and technology that the public, and even researchers like myself, do not often see. I think that is really cool.”

Dhanda explains the nature of his photo on the contest website, nserc-crsng.gc.ca, where votes are processed.

“This image shows a fluorescent overlay of HeLa cells infected with the common foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, showing the bacteria spreading from cell to cell,” Dhanda says.

“The sample was stained with phalloidin to label filamentous actin (green) and DAPI to label the DNA in the host cell nuclei as well as the bacteria (blue). It was transfected with GFP-CD147 (pseudo-colourized magenta) in the cell initiating the spreading event.”



tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com

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Tom Zillich

About the Author: Tom Zillich

I cover entertainment, sports and news stories for the Surrey Now-Leader, where I've worked for more than half of my 30-plus years in the newspaper business.
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