The colors seen here represent the distribution of metabolites—small molecules produced when cells convert nutrients to energy—inside a healthy kidney. Understanding the diversity of metabolic reactions within complex cellular systems yields clues as to how and why these processes vary between cells in a single organ. Armed with the knowledge that tumor cells metabolize nutrients differently than normal ones, researchers study cancer’s altered metabolic pathways to identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention.

This image appears in the Koch Institute Public Galleries as part of a partnership between the Koch Institute and Wellcome Images, a London-based world leader in the collection of biomedical images. To learn more about Wellcome Images, visit their website at: http://wellcomeimages.org/.