The British Heart Foundation has announced the winners of this year's Reflections of Research competition. The competition seeks out the most extraordinary and surprising views of our heart and blood vessels amongst the research that donations help fund.

The judges were James Gallagher, BBC Health and Science Reporter, the British Heart Foundation's Medical Director Peter Weissberg and the foundation's Chief Executive Simon Gillespie, who says:

"This isn’t just visually arresting art; these pictures are reflections of our life-saving research, which makes them even more beautiful."

This year's winners

The Broken Heart. Image of the Year and supporter favourite by Gillian Gray, Megan Swim & Harris Morrison. This image reveals the remarkable 3D structure of an adult mouse heart. The imaging technique used here is being developed to allow researchers to better measure the extent of injury after heart attack.

Image of the Year and Supporter Favourite by Dr Gillian Gray, Megan Swim and Harris Morrison, University of Edinburgh Mending Broken Hearts Award by Dr Jana Koth, University of Oxford Highly commended Dr Andrew Cobb, King’s College London, Dr William Moody, University of Birmingham, Dr Yichuan Wen and Dr David Leake, University of Reading Killer Cholesterol.

Caught in the net. Mending Broken Hearts award. Image by Dr Jana Koth. This is the front view of a developing two day old zebrafish heart. The green cells are heart muscle cells, and the red and blue staining shows components that make up the muscle. The early heart tube has started to loop.

Video of the Year by Dr James Wong, Dr Gerald F Greil, Dr Daniel Giese, Dr Sebastian Kozerke, Professor Tobias Schaeffter and Professor Reza Razavi, King’s College London. Highly commended Dr Daniel Dilg University College London, Dr Diane Proudfoot and Dr Yana Dautova University of Cambridge. Highly commended and Supporter Favourite Dr Gillian Gray, Megan Swim and Harris Morrison University of Edinburgh.

Previous winners

The competition has been running since 2005. See the spectacular images scientists have previously entered into the Reflections of Research competition.