{"id":31074,"date":"2020-08-18T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?p=31074"},"modified":"2024-03-22T11:01:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T10:01:20","slug":"potw2033","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/","title":{"rendered":"Three little ghosts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>These faces staring back at you are no apparition. Despite their ghostly appearance, these are very real cell nuclei infected with Influenza A virus \u2013 the only influenza virus known to cause pandemics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the cells the virus is infecting? They\u2019re from a lung cancer cell line known as A549, which is a good place to observe how Influenza A virus replicates. Once the virus has got inside the host cells, its genome is able to travel into the nucleus through a special gateway called the nuclear pore complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nikenza Viceconte, who worked in the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.embl-hamburg.de\/research\/unit\/kosinski\/\"> Kosinski Group<\/a> at EMBL Hamburg until March (now Head of Lab Processing at Centogene), was part of the team trying to understand that gateway and how the virus moves between the cell\u2019s nucleus and the rest of the cell, and ultimately other cells that it then infects. This research will help us to better understand the whole viral infection cycle. Using a confocal microscope, Nikenza managed to visualise the influenza A virus at the edge of a cell\u2019s nucleus. In these images, she has stained a viral protein (green) and a specific human protein (red) to see them more clearly. The dark areas inside the nucleus (nucleoli) probably indicate an absence of virus. And they also make a good spooky face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Credit: Nikenza Viceconte\/EMBL<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a stunning picture of your science, your lab or your site, you can submit it&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:mathias.jaeger@embl.de\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite their ghostly appearance, these are very real cell nuclei infected with Influenza A virus \u2013 the only influenza virus known to cause pandemics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":31076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,17591],"tags":[38,883,53,655,4686],"embl_taxonomy":[9596,18963,19307],"class_list":["post-31074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-picture-of-the-week","category-science-technology","tag-cancer","tag-cell","tag-hamburg","tag-influenza","tag-nucleus","embl_taxonomy-embl-hamburg","embl_taxonomy-jan-kosinski","embl_taxonomy-kosinski-group"],"acf":{"featured":false,"show_featured_image":false,"color":"#007B53","link_color":"#fff","article_intro":"","related_links":false,"article_sources":false,"in_this_article":false,"youtube_url":"","mp4_url":"","video_caption":"","press_contact":"None","translations":false,"vf_locked":false},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[{"uuid":"a:3:{i:0;s:36:\"b14d3f13-5670-44fb-8970-e54dfd9c921a\";i:1;s:36:\"89e00fee-87f4-482e-a801-4c3548bb6a58\";i:2;s:36:\"613c4de5-1775-447f-af71-4b07085318e9\";}","parents":[],"name":["EMBL Hamburg"],"slug":"embl-hamburg","description":"Where &gt; All EMBL sites &gt; EMBL Hamburg"},{"uuid":"a:2:{i:0;s:36:\"4428d1fd-441a-4d6d-a1c5-5dcf5665f213\";i:1;s:36:\"1c80879f-3b85-4cc6-85d2-b6f175b7c2c8\";}","parents":[],"name":["Jan Kosinski"],"slug":"jan-kosinski","description":"Who &gt; Jan Kosinski"},{"uuid":"a:3:{i:0;s:36:\"302cfdf7-365b-462a-be65-82c7b783ebf7\";i:1;s:36:\"2dc39890-6c01-47bf-ac78-d42abdb10079\";i:2;s:36:\"5cf17219-ae78-437e-85e4-aad17a7c5e0f\";}","parents":[],"name":["Kosinski Group"],"slug":"kosinski-group","description":"What &gt; Structural Biology (EMBL Hamburg) &gt; Kosinski Group"}],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Three little ghosts | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"These happy looking cell nuclei are infected with Influenza A virus \u2013 the only influenza virus known to cause pandemics.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three little ghosts | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"These happy looking cell nuclei are infected with Influenza A virus \u2013 the only influenza virus known to cause pandemics.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-18T07:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-22T10:01:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ivy Kupec\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ivy Kupec\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ivy Kupec\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/427f2c9b624bc32ffa67d80414712274\"},\"headline\":\"Three little ghosts\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-18T07:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-22T10:01:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/\"},\"wordCount\":245,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"cancer\",\"cell\",\"hamburg\",\"influenza\",\"nucleus\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Picture of the week\",\"Science &amp; Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/\",\"name\":\"Three little ghosts | EMBL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-18T07:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-22T10:01:20+00:00\",\"description\":\"These happy looking cell nuclei are infected with Influenza A virus \u2013 the only influenza virus known to cause pandemics.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"Credit: Nikenza Viceconte\/EMBL\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory News\",\"description\":\"News from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"EMBL News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory\",\"alternateName\":\"EMBL\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":144,\"caption\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/embl\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embl_org\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/15813\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/emblmedia\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/427f2c9b624bc32ffa67d80414712274\",\"name\":\"Ivy Kupec\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1abc86f00519d61bc0f2793ed624175c2d7ad829fb5b60e1c3b99a973ac351a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1abc86f00519d61bc0f2793ed624175c2d7ad829fb5b60e1c3b99a973ac351a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ivy Kupec\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/author\/ivy-kupecembl-de\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Three little ghosts | EMBL","description":"These happy looking cell nuclei are infected with Influenza A virus \u2013 the only influenza virus known to cause pandemics.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Three little ghosts | EMBL","og_description":"These happy looking cell nuclei are infected with Influenza A virus \u2013 the only influenza virus known to cause pandemics.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/","og_site_name":"EMBL","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/","article_published_time":"2020-08-18T07:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-03-22T10:01:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ivy Kupec","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@embl","twitter_site":"@embl","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ivy Kupec","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/"},"author":{"name":"Ivy Kupec","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/427f2c9b624bc32ffa67d80414712274"},"headline":"Three little ghosts","datePublished":"2020-08-18T07:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-22T10:01:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/"},"wordCount":245,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg","keywords":["cancer","cell","hamburg","influenza","nucleus"],"articleSection":["Picture of the week","Science &amp; Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/","name":"Three little ghosts | EMBL","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg","datePublished":"2020-08-18T07:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-22T10:01:20+00:00","description":"These happy looking cell nuclei are infected with Influenza A virus \u2013 the only influenza virus known to cause pandemics.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw2033\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg","width":1000,"height":600,"caption":"Credit: Nikenza Viceconte\/EMBL"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/","name":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory News","description":"News from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization"},"alternateName":"EMBL News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization","name":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory","alternateName":"EMBL","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png","width":300,"height":144,"caption":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/","https:\/\/x.com\/embl","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embl_org\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/15813\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/emblmedia\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/427f2c9b624bc32ffa67d80414712274","name":"Ivy Kupec","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1abc86f00519d61bc0f2793ed624175c2d7ad829fb5b60e1c3b99a973ac351a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1abc86f00519d61bc0f2793ed624175c2d7ad829fb5b60e1c3b99a973ac351a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ivy Kupec"},"url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/author\/ivy-kupecembl-de\/"}]}},"field_target_display":"embl","field_article_language":{"value":"english","label":"English"},"fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg","featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/potw2033.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31074"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31278,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31074\/revisions\/31278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31074"},{"taxonomy":"embl_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/embl_taxonomy?post=31074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}