Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Clostridium difficile

Micro-organisms: Volvox

Micro-organisms: Stentor

HIV transcription, HIV viral life cycle, illustration

HIV integration, HIV viral life cycle, illustration

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T. muris is a useful model organism for studying host parasite relationships and associated immune responses as it is closely related to the human parasite T. trichuria, known as the human whipworm, which is thought to infect a quarter of the World's population. Infection is usually asymptomatic, but can cause vitamin A deficiency in children, resulting in stunted growth and developmental delay in children.


Adult worms are approximately 1 centimeter long

Trichuris muris is a parasitic nematode affecting mice. Following ingestion, T. muris eggs hatch in the large intestine where they develop into adults. The anterior end of the worm burrows into the lining of the gut, leaving the posterior end protruding into the lumen of the gut. The worms mate in this orientation, and the resulting eggs are released in to the gut lumen and shed faecally. 

Watercolour and ink on paper illustration of HIV assembly and budding. Once additional viral RNA and proteins have been made inside an infected target cell (usually CD4 T cells, a type of white blood cell found in the immune system), they are assembled and packaged together into new virus particles (virions) ready for release. HIV Gag protein and gag-pol (red) form an ordered arrangement below the cell membrane (white/grey) capturing the HIV genome (yellow). Viral proteins Vpr and Vif (purple; lower middle) are also incorporated. The assembled virus then pinches off from the cell picking up cell membrane on the way to create the viral envelope. Width of image is approximately 100 nm.



This image forms part of a series of illustrations which capture HIV at eight different points in the viral life cycle as it infects a cell and replicates.

HIV assembly and budding, HIV viral life cycle, illustration

"1000 Handshakes" is a performance piece during which the artist shakes hands with as many people as possible, gradually changing the invisible microbial community in the palm of his hand. Periodically, assistants take a swab from the skin, and the samples are analyzed in the lab to reveal how our contact with others shapes the microbes between us. This ongoing project has been performed in different cities around the world (including Copenhagen, Montreal, San Francisco, Perth, Berlin and Baltimore) as a way to map our collective microbiome using scientific data.



Production of the 'microbiome selfies' involved many different steps. Following the collection of the microbiome samples, bacterial DNA was extracted, amplified and sequenced to create the bioinformatic data shown in this series. The nodes of the networks represent bacterial DNA sequences, and two nodes are connected by an edge (line) when the bacterial DNA sequences have more than 95% similarity. The different colours correspond to distinct samples collected at every 50th handshake, from 0 to 1001. 



This image corresponds to the 12th image in this 21-part series, showing the extensive microbiome resulting from 550 handshakes.

"1000 Handshakes" is a performance piece during which the artist shakes hands with as many people as possible, gradually changing the invisible microbial community in the palm of his hand. Periodically, assistants take a swab from the skin, and the samples are analyzed in the lab to reveal how our contact with others shapes the microbes between us. This ongoing project has been performed in different cities around the world (including Copenhagen, Montreal, San Francisco, Perth, Berlin and Baltimore) as a way to map our collective microbiome using scientific data.



Production of the 'microbiome selfies' involved many different steps. Following the collection of the microbiome samples, bacterial DNA was extracted, amplified and sequenced to create the bioinformatic data shown in this series. The nodes of the networks represent bacterial DNA sequences, and two nodes are connected by an edge (line) when the bacterial DNA sequences have more than 95% similarity. The different colours correspond to distinct samples collected at every 50th handshake, from 0 to 1001. 



This image corresponds to the 10th image in this 21-part series, showing the extensive microbiome resulting from 450 handshakes.

"1000 Handshakes" is a performance piece during which the artist shakes hands with as many people as possible, gradually changing the invisible microbial community in the palm of his hand. Periodically, assistants take a swab from the skin, and the samples are analyzed in the lab to reveal how our contact with others shapes the microbes between us. This ongoing project has been performed in different cities around the world (including Copenhagen, Montreal, San Francisco, Perth, Berlin and Baltimore) as a way to map our collective microbiome using scientific data.



Production of the 'microbiome selfies' involved many different steps. Following the collection of the microbiome samples, bacterial DNA was extracted, amplified and sequenced to create the bioinformatic data shown in this series. The nodes of the networks represent bacterial DNA sequences, and two nodes are connected by an edge (line) when the bacterial DNA sequences have more than 95% similarity. The different colours correspond to distinct samples collected at every 50th handshake, from 0 to 1001. 



This image corresponds to the 2nd image in this 21-part series, showing the extensive microbiome resulting from 50 handshakes.

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HIV assembly and budding, HIV viral life cycle, illustration

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

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Wellcome uses cookies.

Micro-organisms

Images

Works

HIV assembly and budding, HIV viral life cycle, illustration

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

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Today’s opening times