The new cross-faculty Institute of Bioengineering at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) celebrated its launch with a photo competition for staff and students.

The major new initiative brings together QMUL's highly rated research in the science, engineering, medicine and dentistry schools, with partners at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and other major London hospitals, to develop patient-focused new medical technologies and treatments.

Kseniya Shuturminska won the competition with her coloured scanning electron microscopy image of an apatite-like mineral grown in the presence of proteins on a polydimethylsiloxane substrate, titled Bouquet. The work looks to understand the formation of teeth in order to lead towards developing treatment for dental caries. As the winner, she received a prize donated by Zeiss.

View the full gallery on Flickr.

Kseniya said: “Art like this gives us the opportunity to display our scientific work in an interesting and creative way to the general public. I like to present my electron microscope images by false colouring them to suggest something familiar, in this case a bouquet of flowers.”

Other entries included images of cells, tissue, proteins and membranes while those submitted to the competition are now on permanent display in QMUL’s Mile End campus.

Dr Alvaro Mata, Director of the Institute of Bioengineering, said: “The competition had a wide variety of scientific images, demonstrating the diverse and interdisciplinary nature of the Institute of Bioengineering at QMUL and it was a great way to celebrate the opening. There were a lot of good entries but Kseniya’s image really stood out.”