Image of the month

This image, captured by Annie Cavanagh and David McCarthy from the London School of Pharmacy, is of a tiny capsule containing a drug called prednisolone being used to treat inflammatory bowel disease. The orange sphere which contains the drug is only 0.02mm in diameter. The blue shell that surrounds it is a polymer: a protective coating which ensures that after the drug is orally ingested, it reaches the large intestine where it is needed without dissolving in the stomach. Slowly dissolving polymers like this one can also produce the gradual release of a drug, so that patients can take medication fewer times a day. Delivering drugs in this way could revolutionise how many conditions are treated, allowing cancer patients, for example, to avoid the side-effects of chemotherapy.

The image is a detail from one of 19 pictures selected for the 10th Wellcome Image Awards. It was produced by a scanning electron microscope, a device which bounces a beam of electrons off the surface of the sample, and can therefore achieve much greater magnification than a conventional microscope which uses light beams. The biological anthropologist, author and broadcaster Alice Roberts will present the awards at the Wellcome Collection on 14th October. According to Roberts, “Images form a bridge, a way in which non-scientists or indeed researchers in a separate discipline may be able to appreciate concepts that are otherwise quite esoteric. But as well as deepening understanding, the art of science can be—in its own right—beautiful and awe-inspiring.”

The winning images will be on display at the Wellcome Collection, London from 15th October. For more information visit www.wellcomeimageawards.org