Catherine Cheng, The Scripps Research Institute, USA

The lens is a transparent and avascular organ in the front of the eye that is responsible for focusing light onto the retina in order to transmit a clear image. In humans, ciliary muscles contract to change the tension of zonule fibers to deform the lens, leading to an increase in the lens optical power to focus on nearby objects, a process known as accommodation. This image shows a 3D reconstruction of a confocal z-stack through a human lens with attached cilliary body and zonules. The zonules are stained with wheat germ agglutinin (red) and microfibril-associated glycoprotein MAGP-1 (yellow). The ciliary body (foreground) and the lens (behind the zonules) are stained with phalloidin (F-actin, green) and DAPI (nuclei, blue). This image was captured by Dr. Catherine Cheng at The Scripps Research Institute, USA.