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UCL winners at 2016 Wellcome Image Awards

16 March 2016

A photograph of a premature baby receiving light therapy by David Bishop, a photographer with UCL Health Creatives and the Royal Free Hospital, has been announced as the winner of the inaugural Julie Dorrington Award for Outstanding Clinical Photography in the 2016 Wellcome Image Awards.

Premature baby receiving light therapy

Premature baby receiving light therapy, was taken at the Starlight Neonatal Unit at Barnet Hospital in London and shows a premature baby being treated for jaundice in a special incubator using an ultraviolet light.

Competition judge and BBC Medical Correspondent Fergus Walsh, remarked: "Cocooned in an incubator, a tiny premature baby sleeps while receiving ultraviolet phototherapy to combat the threat of jaundice. The whole image is cast in a beautiful blue light - the judges felt it perfectly captured the vulnerability of a newborn, whilst keeping a respectful and discreet distance from the subject."

Judged by a panel that included experts in science communication, medicine and biomedical science, the awards recognise the creators of the most informative, striking and technically excellent images that communicate significant aspects of biomedical science.

Infectious disease containment unit & Dividing stem cell in the brain

Included in the twenty finalists was an additional image by David Bishop, Infectious disease containment unit, which depicts the UK's only high-level isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London. The photograph was taken the day before William Pooley was admitted to the Royal Free in August 2014, after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone.

Dr Paula Alexandre (UCL Institute of Child Health) was also shortlisted for her image, Dividing stem cell in the brain. The tiny 250 micrometres sized image uses confocal microscopy to show a stem cell in the brain of a zebrafish before it hatches dividing in to a nerve cell and another stem cell.

The awards were presented at a ceremony at the Science Museum in London and exhibitions of the winning images will open simultaneously on 16 March 2016 in venues across the UK, Europe and Africa.

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Images

  • T-B: Premature baby receiving light therapy by David Bishop, Infectious disease containment unit by David Bishop and Dividing stem cell in the brain by Dr Paula Alexandre. All courtesy of Wellcome Image.