Coming Attractions—Celldance Studios Announce New Microscopic Blockbuster Productions

Celldance Studios, a.k.a. the Public Information Committee, has announced its three ASCB member lab video productions to premiere at ASCB 2016 in San Francisco.

Celldance Studios, a.k.a. ASCB’s Public Information Committee (PIC), today unveiled its list of three Celldance 2016 “Tell Your Own Cell Story” productions that will premiere at ASCB 2016 in San Francisco this December. The three short (3-4 minute) videos will feature eye-popping live cell imaging framed in accessible narratives that will dazzle both biologists and the public. The three ASCB member labs chosen are are those of Daniela Cimini, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA; Matthieu Piel, Institut Curie, Paris, France; and Roberto Weigert, NIH, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD.

Each of the three labs will receive a $1,000 unrestricted production grant from ASCB plus full postproduction services including final editing, a legal musical score, credits, titles, and promotion, all at ASCB expense. Each video-making lab has an assigned PIC member/producer to act as a go-between and advisor for the videomakers. In this role, Claire Walczak, Indiana University, will work with the Cimini lab; Heidi Hehnly-Chang, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, with the Piel group; and Elisa Konieczko, Gannon University, Erie, PA, with the Weigert lab.

• Many people remember diagrams of cell division from their high school biology class, according to Cimini, but her video will update that stale, static memory using the latest 21^st century live cell imaging to reveal the dynamic, colorful, and critical process of mitosis.

• The Weigert video will take viewers into the fundamental unit of life, the cell, using what’s called sub-cellular intravital (SCIV) microscopy. Behind that difficult name is an audacious challenge for any scientist—to make visible what’s going on at the cellular level in living multicellular animals. The Weigert lab has succeeded in making visible the critical cellular process of membrane trafficking in live mice and rats, revealing the strange beauty behind this nuts and bolts process.

• The Piel group has a heroic tale to tell. Through advanced microscopic imaging technology, they will follow the epic journey of a dendritic cell through twisting mazes and tight quarters to the lymph nodes where it dies, releasing a critical signal alerting the body’s immune system to danger. Piel likens the dendritic cell’s task to the Ancient Greek warrior who ran from the battlefield at Marathon to Athens where he gasped the news of victory and collapsed dead. It will be an epic story on a microscopic scale, Piel promises.

This is the third year of Celldance Studio’s “Tell Your Own Cell Story” videos where ASCB member labs are given resources and backup support to bring their big discoveries to the little screen in more than living color. The 2014 and 2015 Celldance videos can be seen here.