In this episode of The Future Conceived, hosts Pam Monahan and Ana Cheong sit down with the brilliant minds behind the stunning winning images of the 2025 SSR Repro BioArt Contest. This annual competition, organized by the Society for the Study of Reproduction's Public Affairs Committee, celebrates the extraordinary beauty, creativity, and discovery revealed under the microscope.

Meet the Winners & Their Masterpieces
Lyda Yuliana Parra Forero (People’s Choice Award Winner): A postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois, Lyda shares the story behind her jaw-dropping 3D reconstruction of a bovine embryo. Stained for F-actin (green) and nuclei (magenta) using confocal microscopy Z-stacks, her image highlights the cellular elegance of compaction, proliferation, and differentiation.

Avery Hlavacek (Members’ Choice Award Winner): A PhD student at the University of Missouri, Avery captured the hearts of the SSR community with a beautiful, charismatic portrait of a transgenic CF-1 mouse. This EGFP-reporter model allows her lab to visualize delicate spindle behavior and microtubule organizing centers (MTOCs) during meiosis I without disrupting normal biological functions.

Learn more about the Society for the Study of Reproduction (SSR) at www.ssr.org.

Note: AI tools were utilized in the generation of the transcript and summary for this episode. All content has been rigorously reviewed by the Future Conceived team for accuracy.