Week 4: MedTech + Art

 In general, this week has been my favorite so far. To begin, I liked learning about the cell’s cytoskeleton and network of microfilaments again (Ingber 1998). I’m interning at Forcyte Bio, which leverages a high-throughput cell-contractility screening platform for drug discovery in mechanobiology-related diseases. I was interested in this subject because of how artistic it is at a subcellular level. Seeing how interconnected each organelle is and how erroneous movement can cause diseases is so interesting. 


Image 1: Cell Contractility Screening


It’s incredible how aesthetically pleasing and unique this interconnected network is. It was this same type of work in Dark Skies, which also captivated me. This work delves into the complexity of the shadows and how they are always in motion (Olynyk 2016). The most interesting thing to me is how they respond to human shadows in such an unpredictable way. In this same work, the germ paintings of Fleming were also introduced. Although Fleming was very creative in how he presented his works, I was happy to also see the diverse set of natural patterns that bacteria create (Frankel 2023). It’s cool to see the same synthetic biology techniques that I use in my biochem labs used to produce art. In this paper, Kremers’ work in engineering E. Coli to produce a variety of chromogenic proteins for acrylic art is stunning.

Image 2: Nanoscale Art


The medtech art at the cell and molecular level interests me most. Even as a kid, I always wondered about the smallest things that make up life. This is part of the reason why I’m so happy to be working on a platform for protein evolution. However, I also enjoyed how the lectures started off talking about the human body. I particularly enjoyed learning about how war advanced science and technology as applied to medicine. Due to the rise in the number of soldiers, prosthetics became a prominent field (Vesna 2024). What’s really beautiful about medtech applied to the general human body, is how these works can be visualized. Our bodies connect us and just as much as we are different, we also share many similarities. I also noticed this through the “medical avatar” technology which achieves exactly that (Wong 2011). Being able to view others at the visceral level humanizes a lot oddly. There’s a lot of comfort in being able to see others in the way that Wong describes.   

Image 3: AI in Protein Evolution


Sources:

  1. Ingber, Donald E. "The architecture of life." Scientific American. 1998.

  2. Olynyk, Patricia. "Synthesizing fields: Art, complexism and the space beyond now." Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research. 2016.

  3. Vesna, Victoria. Medtech + Art: Lecture 3. 2024.

  4. Wong, Virgil. Best of TED: Art + Visualization at the Heart of Human-Centric Healthcare Medical Avatar. 2011.

  5. Frankel, Eve, et al. "Bridging the gap with bacterial art." FEMS Microbiology Letters 370. 2023.

Images:

  1. Wang, Yao, et al. "FLECS technology for high-throughput screening of hypercontractile cellular phenotypes in fibrosis: A function-first approach to anti-fibrotic drug discovery." SLAS Discovery. 2024.

  2. Yetisen, Ali K., et al. "Art on the Nanoscale and Beyond." Advanced Materials. 2016.

  3. Eisenstein, Michael. "AI-enhanced protein design makes proteins that have never existed." Nature Biotechnology. 2023.

Comments

  1. Jonathan DengApril 27, 2024 at 5:16 PM

    Hi William,
    It was great reading your insightful and creative response to this week’s topic of medicine, technology, and art. I really enjoyed that you were able to connect the topic to your work at Forcyte Bio, and comment on its core artistic nature. I was also surprised to learn about Fleming and his work, as well as the ability of bacteria to somewhat naturally create art! Your image selection also enhanced your blog post a lot, and I found myself captivated by the amalgamation of shapes and colors in medical imaging that can also be perceived as art. Also, I definitely agree with your assessment that prosthetics can be thought of as a form of art that is applied to improve the human body. Overall, there is an everlasting bridge that connects medicine, technology, and art, one that sees links in MRIs, plastic surgery, and even pop culture like Grey’s Anatomy. All told, I’m happy to have read your perspective on these interdisciplinary fields and how one can even see examples in daily life.

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