Daily News Briefs

Extreme Close-up: This year's first-place winner of Nikon Instruments' photomicrography competition was Torsten Wittmann of The Scripps Research Institute, for his entry, "Filamentous actin and microtubules (structural proteins) in mouse fibroblasts (cells) (1000x) Fluorescence."

Nikon Instruments Inc., a developer of microscope and digital imaging technology, announced the winners of its 2003 Small World Photomicrography Competition at a reception in New York's Times Square last night. Torsten Wittman of The Scripps Research Institute, Greg Rouse of South Australia Museum and Heiti Paves of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics in Estonia won first, second and third prize, respectively. The twenty prize-winning images will be exhibited at museums and science centers throughout the US beginning in December. . . . Aurora Imaging Technology Inc. announced that its RODEO (rotating delivery of excitation off-resonance) breast imaging method, originally developed and patented by Steven E. Harms, MD and Duane P. Flamig, PhD, has received 510(k) market clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration.