What kinds of story are you telling with these images of cancer-cell death?
We show that chemotherapy isn’t a simple process, and it causes cell death in several ways. Basically, you want a chemotherapy drug — in this case, doxorubicin — to cause programmed cell death, called apoptosis, in which the cell implodes. This is ideal from a medical perspective, because the nucleus shrinks and fragments, minimizing damage to surrounding tissues. But chemotherapy can also cause necrosis, an uncontrolled destructive process, which is a less favourable outcome. Necrosis causes inflammation and other cell damage. Our SEM images show both apoptosis and necrosis.