Insta-Your-Cells 2025-2026 - International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy

WHAT IS THE INSTA-YOUR-CELLS PHOTO CHALLENGE?

The Insta-Your-Cells Photo Challenge is an annual contest that provides opportunity for members of the cell and gene therapy community to submit images of cells and cell-related products from their labs.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

Anyone can participate including ISCT members and non-members.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Anyone can submit images during the submission period. There are no limits on the number of submissions per individual. Once the submission period closes, ISCT members will vote for their favorite image.

WHY SUBMIT?

Stand a chance to win one of three prizes (details below). Any photo submitted to the contest has a chance to be selected for the front-cover of Cytotherapy starting with August 2026 issue and included in the Insta-Your-Cells Calendar!

KEY DATES

SUBMISSION OPENS
August 18, 2025

SUBMISSION CLOSES
November 8, 2025

VOTING PERIOD
(BY ISCT MEMBERS ONLY)
November 20–December 4, 2025

ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNERS
December 18, 2025

PRIZES

ALL 3 WINNERS will receive complimentary registrations to the ISCT 2026 Dublin Scientific Annual Meeting. In addition:

1ST PLACE: framed keepsake of the May 2026 issue of Cytotherapy + framed keepsake of the May 2026 Cytotherapy cover
2ND PLACE: Image showcased on the cover of the June 2026 issue of Cytotherapy
3RD PLACE: Image showcased on the cover of the July 2026 issue of Cytotherapy

SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY

SUBMISSION RULES

Submission portal will open from August 18–October 30, 2025
No duplicate submissions; contestants may submit as many images as desired (re-use the form)
Submissions to previous rounds of Insta-Your-Cells Challenge are not eligible for re-entry

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Photo specifications: 300+ DPI, at least 800 x 1080px in dimensions. Images will be automatically disqualified if they do not have the requisite specifications.
Submissions to be in JPEG or PNG format
Do not include scale bars, or labelling on image itself
A description of your image is required

Submit Now!

Cytotherapy Covers Over the Years

August 2025

Liliana del Carmen Yantén Fuentes (Chile) — Lipid Overloaded Hepatocyte.

July 2025

Andrea Alvarez (Mexico) — Microcarriers.

June 2025

Chloë De Clercq (Belgium) — Pulse to pulse: Laser precision, straight to the heart.

May 2025

Violet Young (USA) — A section of a tumor-draining lymph node from a mouse with an established breast cancer tumor; the CD21/35 positive yellow cells show evidence of germinal center B cells.

April 2025

Beatrice Ho (Singapore) — Human induced pluripotent stem cell derived islets show expression of the glucagon receptor (GCGR) which plays a critical role in beta cell function and proliferation.

March 2025

Hojjatollah Nazari (Australia) — Organoid Vision: Gazing into the Future of Science. Human gut organoids in a gel-based 3D matrix provide a fascinating glimpse into the future of biomedicine.

February 2025

Hamid Ebrahimi Orimi (Canada) — Insulin-Producing Cells in a 3D perfusable environment using the Sacrificial Embedded Writing approach.

January 2025

Beatrice Ho (Singapore) — Human induced pluripotent stem cell derived islets show expression of secretin (SCT), a gut hormone that contributes to glucose homeostasis by acting as a counter-regulatory hormone to insulin.

December 2024

Cesare Cejas (United Kingdom) — Expanding iPSC colony inside an early version of bespoke microfluidics-based bioreactor designed and built at Valitacell Ltd, a UK-based company providing hardware for bioprocessing solutions.

November 2024

Merve Nur Soykan (Turkey) — Immunofluorescence staining of F-actin in human limbal mesenchymal stem cells (hLMSCs).

October 2024

Shanti Gurung (Australia) — Confocal image of human endometrial mesenchymal stem cell-derived small extracellular vesicles stained with CD63 (red) and Hoechst (cell nuclei, blue).

September 2024

Kavitha Govarthanan (India) — Confocal image showing 3D-printed GelMA-laden H9C2 cells stained with phalloidin after 21 days of culture.

August 2024

Violet Young (USA) — Whole tumor draining lymph node of a mouse with breast cancer. TLS stains: B220 (B cells, red) and PNAd (high endothelial vessels, green).

July 2024

Heidi Strauss (Australia) — Human patient-derived organoids showing GPC3 (green), a marker overexpressed in pancreatic tumours targeted for CAR-T therapy. 40× Z-stack projection.

June 2024

Jiri Eitler (Germany) — "Kiss of Death": CAR-NK cell killing a breast cancer cell.

May 2024

Andrés Caicedo (Ecuador) — Mesenchymal stem cells with red and green networks framing blue nuclei, illustrating a vivid microscopic dance.

April 2024

Fitria Ayuningtyas (Indonesia) — Confocal microscopy of hMSC aggregate during commitment toward cardiomyocytes.

March 2024

Audrey Varin (France) — Human adipose-derived MSCs (actin: green, nucleus: white, vimentin: pink).

February 2024

Miriel Ho (Canada) — Self-assembling human cardiosphere. Cardiac progenitors with NKX2.5 (turquoise), mitochondria (dark pink), actin cytoskeleton (orange).

January 2024

Emma Heyman (Belgium) — Ultrastructure of bovine adipose-derived MSC producing fat droplets during adipogenic differentiation; scanning electron microscopy.

December 2023

Chiara Cugno (Qatar) — Adipo-differentiated human MSCs treated with CLA; stained for mitochondria, lipid droplets, and DNA. Imaged on LSM 880, Airyscan detection at 100× magnification.

November 2023

Kapil Bharti (USA) — Nuclear-Lamin-GFP and cell membrane (magenta) staining of iPSC-derived mature retinal pigment epithelium cells.

October 2023

Chiara Cugno (Qatar) — Murine osteoclasts differentiated from RAW264.7 cells with pioglitazone; stained for nuclei and actin. Imaged on Cell Discoverer7 at 40× magnification.

September 2023

Abbirami Sathappan (Qatar) — Osteo-differentiated human MSCs stained for RUNX2 and actin filaments. Imaged using LSM 880 (Zeiss) at 20× magnification with AiryScan detector.

August 2023

Hanna Svitina (Belgium) — Soft bone callus μ-tissue from human periosteum-derived cells after 21 days differentiation; collagen (red), actin (green), OSX (magenta), nuclei (blue).

July 2023

Andres Caicedo (Ecuador) — Mitochondrial energizing highway: MSC (MitoTracker Red) transfers mitochondria to stressed cell (CellTracker Green) via nanotube internalized into recipient cytoplasm. Confocal image.

June 2023

Meimei Yang (Ireland) — Confocal image of iPSC-derived astrocytes stained with GFAP at week 11 of differentiation, 40×.

May 2023

Abbirami Sathappan (Qatar) — Inflamed tonsil tissue stained for CD4 cells, nuclei, and cytokeratin. Imaged on Cell Discoverer7 with 20× objective.

April 2023

Mohammad Bilal (Canada) — Human dermal fibroblasts stained with phalloidin (red) for F-actin and DAPI (blue) for nuclei.

March 2023

Marc-Antoine Da-veiga (Belgium) — Expression of βIII-tubulin (orange) in adult patient-derived stem-like glioblastoma cells (T018) after 12 days in neuronal differentiation medium; nucleus (DAPI, turquoise), 40× epifluorescence.

February 2023

Miriel Ho (Canada) — Polygonal lung epithelial cells from human iPSCs in 2-D culture; EpCAM (green), actin filaments (red), nuclei DAPI (blue).

January 2023

Barbara Dalmaso (Brazil) — Sectioned tissue showing live retinal stem cell niches from mouse eyes; labeled for Platelet-Activating Factor Receptor (green) and DAPI (blue).

December 2022

Marc-antoine Da-veiga (Belgium) — Expression of neuronal marker βIII‑tubulin (orange) in pediatric patient‑derived stem‑like glioblastoma (SF188) after 12 days in neuronal differentiation medium; nucleus (DAPI, turquoise), 40× epifluorescence.

November 2022

Shanti Sibuea (Indonesia) — Mature midbrain dopaminergic neuron expressing eGFP under LMX1A; immunolabelled for nucleus (DAPI) and TH (red).

October 2022

Dolores Carmona (Spain) — Ultrastructure of bone marrow–derived MSC at passage 3 (TEM, JEOL JEM‑1400): cytoplasm, nucleus, and exosome features.

September 2022

Mirabelle Ho (Canada) — iPSC‑derived cardiomyocyte: NKX2.5 (red) decreases while cardiac troponin T (green) persists; nuclei counterstained with DAPI (blue).

August 2022

Inken Kelch (New Zealand) — Human keratinocytes in co‑culture with melanocytes.

July 2022

Miriel Ho (Canada) — iPSC‑derived cardiomyocytes showing cardiac troponin T (red) and sarcomeric α‑actinin (green); nuclei DAPI (blue).

June 2022

Andrés Caicedo (Ecuador) — EV from mouse MSC carrying mitochondria shared among differentially labelled MSCs (MitoRed/MitoGreen); 20× zoomed image.

May 2022

Philippe Cohen (France) — Lumenized 3D pluripotent stem cell colony (epiblastoid) in hollow capsule bioreactor (C‑Stem™); DAPI + actin (phalloidin); equatorial sections & color‑coded projections (~200 μm).

April 2022

Philippe Cohen — Biomimetic 3D stem cell colonies inside core‑shell alginate capsules (C‑Stem, TreeFrog Therapeutics).

March 2022

Giulia Golinelli — Day one of spheroid‑based coculture between sarcoma cells and TRAIL‑expressing MSCs.

February 2022

Gina Kusuma — Immunofluorescence of human amniotic epithelial cells in monolayer; actin (red), vinculin (green), DAPI (blue).

January 2022

Philippe Cohen — 3D stem cell colony (iPS epiblastoid) cultured inside core‑shell hydrogel capsule; Blue DAPI (TreeFrog Tx / Bordeaux Imaging Center; AGAVE software).

December 2021

Francesca Bastaroli — iPSC-derived cardiomyocyte stained for cardiac troponin T (cTnT, green) and nuclei (DAPI, blue)

November 2021

Maojia Xu — Neural rosettes formed in embryoid body from human iPSCs. Neural cells stained by NESTIN (red) and nuclei (blue)

October 2021

Minna Sivonen — Human adult dermal fibroblasts showing myofibroblast transdifferentiation during wound healing. α-SMA (green), nuclei (blue)

September 2021

Minna Sivonen — Human macrophages differentiated from blood monocytes in suspension bioreactor. Cytoskeleton (Vimentin - red) and nuclei (blue)

August 2021

Audrey Varin — Crop of human adipose tissue. Yellow: adipocytes; red: endothelial cells; green: adipose-derived stromal cells; purple: macrophages

July 2021

Philippe Cohen — Epiblastoid (Confocal Equatorial view): 3D culture of iPSCs inside core-shell hydrogel capsule. Blue = DAPI, Pink = F-ACTIN. Imaging: TreeFrog Tx & Bordeaux Imaging Center

June 2021

Julian Milberg — A PtK2 cell undergoing anaphase. DNA (green) stained with Sytox Green, microtubules (red) with Alexa 546, imaged on Leica TCS SP8 STED 3X microscope

May 2021

Pradyut Paul — Porcine pancreatic stellate cells protect human islet endocrine function in co-culture

April 2021

Wah Suet Ng — Ultrastructure of human umbilical cord-derived MSC under scanning electron microscopy. Blebs and few filopodia are observed.

March 2021

Johnatas Silva — Modulation of mitophagy in LPS-stimulated human small airway epithelial cells treated with extracellular vesicles of bone marrow-derived MSC. Blue = DAPI, Red = MitoTracker, Green = LC3A/B, Orange = Mitophagy

February 2021

Ivano Colao — 3D fluorescent confocal microscopy images of Umbilical Cord-derived MSC on microcarriers, stained for CD 105 (red), STRO-1 (green), nuclei with Hoechst (blue)

January 2021

Hillary Sherman — Human intestinal organoids from a patient with cystic fibrosis stained with villin (red)