As the 2025 edition of the France-BioImaging Image Contest is still running, we wanted to highlight our previous winners and their projects. Here is a quick throwback to our 2024 winners.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, we want to remind you that you still have time (before November 14th) to submit your best images and try to win your registration fees for one 2026 microscopy-related event! Please make sure you upload your images on the following link:
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Learn more about our 2024 France-BioImaging Image Contest winners!
As the 2025 edition of the France-BioImaging Image Contest is still running, we wanted to highlight our previous winners and their projects. Here is a quick throwback to our 2024 winners. Before getting to the heart of the matter, we want to remind you that you still have time (before November 14th) to submit your…
Last year, we enjoyed the winning images submitted for their artistic take and their quality. Thanks to Vanessa WEICHSELBERGER , Dalia EL ARAWI and Frédéric FERCOQ for their beautiful images!
1st Place: Vanessa WEICHSELBERGER
Pierre-François LENNE team, Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille (IBDM)

“Rays of repetitive beauty”
Marine plant collected in Mediterranean Sea, stained for Actin using Phalloidin.
2-photon microscope
Vanessa WEICHSELBERGER is a shared post-doctoral researcher between the lab of Pierre-François LENNE at IBDM in Marseille and Vikas TRIVEDI at EMBL in Barcelona. She is a developmental biologist and interested in how cells coordinate morphogenetic processes with each other.
The image she submitted isn’t related to her research proejct. It is of a sample that they took from the Mediterranean Sea on a lab day out, it is part of an underwater plant. She believes it stands for their interest in shape and form beyond their own research projects. It represents their broad curiosity in biological structures.
They stained the sample for Actin and Nuclei and just admired its structure, pattern and periodicity.
“It is a great example of how amazing all kind of life is!“
By multiplying and arranging the image into a periodic wheel, the periodicity of the sample itself is even more highlighted.
2nd Place: Dalia EL ARAWI
Pierre-François LENNE team, Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille (IBDM)

“Gastrula Nebula”
Murine embryonic organoid illustrating cells collective migration on a laminin-coated surface. Phalloidin-labeled Actin filaments and Hoechst-stained Nuclei highlight detailed cellular architecture and a remarkably structured tissue organization.
Zeiss LSM 880 Confocal Microscopy
Dalia EL ARAWI is a post-doctoral researcher in biophysics, currently working at the IBDM in Marseille. Her research focuses on studying Gastruloids, 3D aggregates of mouse embryonic stem cells.
Gastruloids have emerged as a powerful in vitro model to study early embryonic development and tissue patterning. Within a few days, Gastruloids undergo symmetry breaking, axial elongation and germ layers specification, forming structures that closely mimic embryonic tissues both genetically and morphologically. Despite their ability to self-organize into complex architectures, 3D Gastruloids face developmental limitations over time, including tissue surface tension, apoptosis, and high phenotypic variability. To address these challenges, she used a hybrid 2.5D Gastruloids approach: first, generating 3D Gastruloids with proper differentiation and antero-posterior symmetry breaking, then transferring them onto a 2D extracellular matrix that mimics extraembryonic tissues, promoting more advanced morphogenesis.
This is illustrated in the submitted image, where a 2.5D Gastruloid spreads across a laminin-coated surface, revealing detailed cellular architecture and tissue organization. By applying different labeling strategies, she uses this approach to gain insights into vascular and cardiac structure formation. Her findings suggest that substrate-guided Gastruloid models may potentially recapitulate key aspects of cardiovascular development, offering new insights into tissue self-organization and vascularization.
For Dalia, being awarded second place in the FBI Image Contest was very rewarding. The recognition increased the visibility of her work, sparked discussions with colleagues inside and outside the lab, and motivated her to present her research more widely. It also gave her confidence to pursue future opportunities related to microscopy and imaging!
3rd Place: Frédéric FERCOQ
Molecules of Communication and Adaptation of Microorganisms team, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN)

“Explosion filarienne“
Internal architecture of Litomosoides sigmodontis, a parasitic nematode used as a model to better understand filarial infections. Under significant internal pressure to maintain its structure, this nematode experienced a cuticle rupture during handling, leading to the expulsion of some organs, including the ovary and intestine. The cytoskeleton appears in orange, and the DNA in cyan.
Confocal microscopy
Frédéric FERCOQ is a Maître de conférences in the UMR 7245 “Molecules of Communication and Adaptation of Microorganisms” at the MNHN in Paris. He works in the “Parasites and Free-Living Protists” team, where his research focuses on host–parasite–symbiont interactions during filarial infections. He studies how anti-parasite immune responses and bacterial endosymbionts such as Wolbachia influence parasite development, fertility, and tissue pathology. Microscopy is central to his approach, enabling him to visualize parasite structure, host tissue organization, and cellular interactions in detail.
The submitted image shows the internal anatomy of a female Litomosoides sigmodontis filarial worm after mechanical rupture. Due to the high internal pressure required to maintain its structure, the cuticle burst during manipulation, causing the expulsion of internal tissues, here the ovaries and intestine. Tubulin staining (orange) highlights microtubule-rich structures, while DNA is shown in cyan.
Winning the FBI Image Contest allowed Frédéric to attend the Microscience Microscopy Congress (MMC Series) in Manchester in July 2024, where he presented both a poster and an oral communication. The MMC is one of Europe’s leading interdisciplinary conferences dedicated to advances in microscopy across the life and physical sciences. It was a great opportunity for him to share their most recent publication (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1013301) and to present it in the context of their broader, microscopy-driven research on filarial development and host–parasite interactions. The event also allowed him to connect with researchers from diverse imaging backgrounds and explore new techniques relevant to parasitology.
Want to be the next winner of our FBI Image Contest? Apply through the following link before November 14th, 2025: https://france-bioimaging.org/fbi-special-events/fbi-image-contest-2025/