Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Rat neurones, SEM

Brain blood vessels, suspected meningitis, 3D printed nylon

Cellular architecture of normal human skin imaged by whole mount tissue microscopy. Human skin has a rich network of white blood cells (specifically dendritic cells, T cells and macrophages) which form sheaths around blood vessels. In this image, T cells (stained for CD3; red) dendritic cells (stained for MHC class II; green) and macrophages (stained for LYVE-1; blue with some cells showing a tinge of green) can be seen. Cell nuclei have been stained with DAPI (grey). This normal cellular architecture is grossly disrupted in diseased skin (see related images). X10 magnification. Scale bar (white) represents 200 micrometres.

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Blood vessels in a female human adult brain, from a patient with suspected bacterial meningitis. The 2D data contained in the patient's MRI scans were converted into 3D renders by the artist who was then able to export them to a printable format so that they could be 3D printed in white nylon by selective laser sintering (SLS). 



Meningitis is the infection of the protective membranes around the brain and spinal cord (meninges) and can be bacterial or viral. Bacterial meningitis can be very severe and if left untreated can cause brain damage and infection of the blood (septicaemia). It can be caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, group B Streptococcus, Listeria monocytogenes, Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis.



Wellcome Trust photography by Ben Gilbert.

Ink on paper painting of neural communication, which is depicted here as neurones connecting with each other. Neurones are cells in the nervous system which carry information in the form of electrical signals and allow us to sense and respond to our environment.

Neurones connecting, artwork

Bird's eye (superior) view of connections in the brain of a healthy 29 year old female human. The front of the brain is facing the right side of the image and the back of the brain is on the left. Brain cells communicate with each other through these nerve fibres, which have been visualised using diffusion imaging tractography. Diffusion weighted imaging is a specialised type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan which measures water diffusion in many directions in order to reconstruct the orientation of bundles of axons. Tractography is used to indirectly model these bundles of axons (nerve fibres), which transmit information between cortical regions at the brain's surface. Since these images are in 3D, colours have been used to represent the direction of the neural tracts. For example, connections that run from the motor cortex and somatosensory cortex down to the corticospinal tract in the brain stem are visible in blue/purple. The brain measures approximately 18 cm from front to back.

Healthy adult human brain viewed from above, tractography

"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.

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Brain blood vessels, suspected meningitis, 3D printed nylon

Neurones connecting, artwork

Brain blood vessels, suspected meningitis, 3D printed nylon

Healthy adult human brain viewed from above, tractography

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

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Wellcome uses cookies.

Network

Images

Works

Brain blood vessels, suspected meningitis, 3D printed nylon

Neurones connecting, artwork

Brain blood vessels, suspected meningitis, 3D printed nylon

Healthy adult human brain viewed from above, tractography

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment

Wellcome Collection

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