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It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.
Carl Sagan
Scientists and artists are curious about the world around them. They ask questions and produce creative, innovative solutions to problems. At times, their tools may differ. Most importantly, they are not mutually exclusive. At BioFrontiers, we celebrate the intersection of art and science as our ethos of innovation without boundaries extends beyond just the scientific disciplines.
Chords & Codons
On April 16th, 2019, collaborations from the BioFrontiers Institute, College of Music, ATLAS Institute and the University of Edinburgh brought Chords & Codons: Music About Science to the CU community, the event featured multidisciplinary multimedia including live music, electronic music, and visualizations.
The music was produced by Rocky Canyon and the Flatiron Five. They are a group composing and creating new music that is inspired by science or uses scientific data as one of its components. Their music is a hybrid of electronic music, Scottish music and the sounds of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado as embodied in the Flatirons. The musicians are led by Colin Campbell and include contributions from students and staff at the University of Colorado Boulder and Scots musicians like Peter Nardini and Ken Donaldson.
Several of their pieces can be found below.
BioFrontiers Microscopy
Donated by NEST (Nature, Environment, Science & Technology) Studio for the Arts
Clockwise from top left:
Lynn Sanford / Palmer Lab / BioFrontiers Institute: Primary hippocampal neurons can be genetically modified to express a fluorescent zinc sensor to measure zinc dynamics in real time. This image reveals one such modified neuron colored to show zinc sensor expression levels.
Christa Trexlar / Leinwand Lab / BioFrontiers Institute: The presence of estrogen (green) with the nucleus (blue) of an adult rat heart muscle cell (red) is shown. Identification and further research of estrogen’s role in maintaining cardiac health may lead to the development of treatments for a variety of cardiac diseases.
Ada Buvoli & Massimo Buvoli / Leinwand Lab / BioFrontiers Institute: A field of stem cells (blue) with several pre-muscle cells (red) are growing together to be used for the controlled study of skeletal muscle diseases.
Eric Bunker / Lui Lab / Biochemistry: Live-cell microscopy allows scientists to monitor cell division as it relates to wound healing in skin cells. This image highlights a cell growth regulator (red), a membrane-bound sensor for cell communication (green), and the nucleus of each cell (blue).
Joe Dragavon / BioFrontiers Institute: An entire mouse kidney-cross section was imaged using more than 2,500 unique images. Individual components of the mouse kidney are shown in green and red, while the numerous nuclei are blue.
NEST
“Nature, Environment, Science & Technology (NEST) Studio for the Arts is a network of faculty, students, centers and both institutional and individual partners that combine artistic practice and scientific research to explore our common and disparate ways of observing, recording, experimenting and knowing.
NEST develops exhibitions, teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, funds graduate student's research and creative work—and its outreach—runs public programs and workshops, and hosts events with the clear mission of celebrating science and art as two complementary ways of thinking about the world inside and around us, and building bridges between scientists and artists in and around the University of Colorado Boulder.”
1st Place
Anastasia Karabina, Leinwand Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Ti-E Widefield
Personalized medicine aims to deliver more precise and effective medications to combat a given disease. However, for this to be successfully achieved, the diseased cells must be characterized. Shown here is an example of actin propagation over time (time is color coded from Blue to Red), whereby the investigator can follow this crucial subcellular component of muscle cells and label it as healthy or diseased. If needed, the appropriate medication can then be selected and applied.
2nd Place
Scientists and Engineers at Double Helix
Double Helix Optics, Nikon NSTORM
Traditional microscopes often are unable to resolve the truly fine structures in our cells. This puts a limit onto what researchers can observe and the areas of study that can be pursued. Recently, advances in optical microscopy technologies have improved upon this visual limit by nearly ten-fold. Such progress is allowing investigators to achieve new insights into subcellular structure and function.
3rd Place
Leila Saleh, Bryant Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Zeiss Axiovert Widefield
Researchers aim to develop new materials that provide greater medical benefit and functionality while being readily accepted by our immune systems. By observing the tissue that surrounds the engineered material, investigators can assess the biocompatibility of the material with our bodies. In the tissue section shown here, the connective tissue (Blue) and cell nuclei (dark red) can be seen.
Honorable Mentions
Bryan Murillo, Ahn Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Spinning Disc Confocal
Cell migration is a complex process that is not entirely understood and is very relevant to cancer. Investigators are now beginning to unravel this mechanism through the identification and observation of proteins specific to this process. Here, the researchers are investigating the involvement of microtubules (flexible polymers that promote cell shape, shown in Orange) to the aggregation of specific cell migration proteins (Green).
Megan Schroeder and Andrea Gonzalez Rodriguez, Anseth Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Spinning Disc Confocal
Fibroblasts are cells that produce the structural framework for the tissues found in our bodies. Observing how these cells respond to diseases helps researchers understand why fibrosis, for example, in heart disease, might occur. By combining fibroblasts with engineered growth matrices that mimic aspects of their native tissue, investigators gain insights into disease development. Individual cell nuclei (Blue) and cytoskeletal components (Green and Red) are shown.
Guy Hagen
BioFrontiers Institute UCCS I Custom-Built Structured Illumination Microscope
Investigations frequently require our researchers to push the technological limits of our microscopes, and it is often necessary to develop custom-built systems and analytical tools. This 3D image of animal tissue was acquired using a custom-built microscope designed specifically to improve spatial resolution in all dimensions. The image is color-coded for depth.
Lynn Sanford, Palmer Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Spinning Disc Confocal
The central nervous system is extremely complex and involves many cell types that interact with each other. Glial cells have a major impact on proper neuronal function by secreting signaling molecules and recycling neurotransmitters, amongst others.
This image was captured as part of an investigation of proper neuronal function and shows the presence of more fluorescent dye in the nucleus (Yellow) compared to rest of the cell (Green to Purple).
Suzannah Miller, Ahn Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Olympus IX-81 Widefield
Actin, a common protein found in cells, often forms microfilaments within cells. These filaments play a major role in cellular function such as cell shape and migration, and they can be an indicator of overall cell health. Here, the actin filaments have been fluorescently labeled, with the resulting image false-colored using a heat map. Warmer colors reflect the presence of actin stress fibers, which is indicative of poor cellular health.
Max Yavitt and Tobin Brown, Anseth Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Zeiss LSM 710 Confocal Microscope
The organs that make up our bodies are comprised of a complex and intricate network of multiple cell types. Through a combination of matrix engineering and biological approaches, researchers can create organ-like models (termed organoids) to study the early stages of their formation. Here, the nuclei (Blue), actin (Green), and lysozymes (Red) of an intestinal organoid are shown.
Yicheng Long, Cech Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Ti-E Widefield
Acquiring relevant human tissues to study human diseases is challenging, meaning researchers are often required to use non-ideal models. More recently, investigators have been able to utilize pluripotent stem cells in their disease studies. These cells can be induced to represent nearly any human cell type or tissue. Here, stem cells have been induced to form human cardiac myocytes. Muscle components are shown (Green). The individual cell nuclei are also shown (Blue).
Ali McCorkindale
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Spinning Disc Confocal
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) comes in multiple forms that can be generally divided into two subcategories: those that allow for protein formation and those that do not (dubbed non-coding). Recently, researchers have discovered that these non-coding RNAs play a vital role in cell fate decisions. The presence of non-coding RNA (Red), glial cells (Green), and cell nuclei (Blue) is observed in both young (left) and mature (right) fly embryos.
Kelsie Anson, Palmer Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Ti-E Widefield
Researchers now understand that zinc and other metals play a vital role in proper cellular function. Genetically-encoded tools can be used to observe the connection between these metallic nutrients and changes in cell behavior. Here, these cells have been modified to show the presence of zinc (Yellow) and other traditional signaling molecules (Red), providing insight to their physiological relationship. The individual cell nuclei are shown (Teal).
1st Place
Lynn Sanford, Palmer Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Spinning Disc Contact
Hippocampal neurons use zinc as a neurotransmitter, but it is difficult to see zinc dynamics in cells. To overcome this challenge, primary hippocampal neurons can be genetically modified to express a fluorescent zinc sensor to measure zinc dynamics in real time. The image shown here is an example of one such modified neuron colored to show zinc sensor expression levels.
2nd Place
Meghan Schroeder, Anseth Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Spinning Disc Confocal
Understanding why fibrosis occurs is essential for creating drug therapies. To this end, researchers study specific heart valve cells called fibroblasts that are grown in 3D supportive matrix that mimic aspects of native tissue to probe cell response in disease-like scenarios. Here we see fibroblasts within a 3D gel. Various tones of blue mark the individual cell nuclei and their cytoskeletal components.
3rd Place
Doug Peters, Garcea Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Spinning Disc Confocal
Mouse fibroblasts expressing a fluorescent protein were infected with mouse polyomavirus and imaged for several hours. Each frame of the resulting time-course was assigned a color. Cooler colors represent early frames while warmer colors represent later frames. This allows you to see how these living cells move as the time-course progresses and how the fluorescent protein reorganizes into punctate viral replication centers.
Honorable Mentions
Chicca Buvoli & Massimo Buvoli, Leinwand Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Spinning Disc Confocal
Stem cells have the amazing capability of essentially becoming any other cell type depending on their growth conditions. Larger structures, such as muscle fibers and organs, can also be formed from large fields of stem cells. Here, a field of stem cells (blue) with several pre-muscle cells (red) are growing together to be used for the controlled study of skeletal muscle diseases.
Lynn Sanford, Palmer Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Spinning Disc Confocal
Our brains are a complex interwoven network of neurons and other cell types that work together to transmit information through neurotransmitters such as glutamate and zinc. The network shown here has been labeled with a membrane-bound dye that allows us to observe zinc release upon neuronal activation. The resulting image has been pseudocolored based on fluorescence intensity.
Doug Chapnick, Liu Lab
Chemistry and Biochemistry, Nikon Laser Scanning Confocal
Researchers can effectively freeze living cells in their current position through the application of certain chemicals. This image shows the continued movement of the cell membrane upon improper chemical treatment, highlighting the difficulty of preserving the cellular structure. The nuclei (in teal) remain structurally sound while the clarity of the membrane (violet to yellow) has been fully lost.
Massimo Buvoli & Chicca Buvoli, Leinwand Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon A1R Laser Scanning Confocal
Muscle fibers consist of repeating units of proteins called sarcomeres which, in this image, appear as alternating colored (red and green) and dark bands. Here, neonatal rat heart valve muscle cells were genetically modified with both red and green fluorescent proteins. The use of multiple colors shows the preferential accumulation of the mutant proteins at the center of the sarcomere.
Evan Lester & Josh Wheeler, Parker Lab
Chemistry and Biochemistry, Nikon Laser Scanning Confocal
Messenger RNA (mRNA) is used within our cells to help create individual proteins that are needed for appropriate cellular function. Mislocalization of the mRNA can lead to the onset of various genetic diseases. Here, a muscle fiber (green) was isolated from the leg of a mouse and imaged to better understand the location of the mRNA (yellow and red) within the substructure of the muscle. The cell nuclei are shown in blue.
Joe Dragavon
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Spinning Disc Confocal
It is often desirable to observe a very large object with microscopic resolution. In microscopy, this can be accomplished through the complex synchronization of automate stages, light sources, and cameras. Here, an entire mouse kidney cross-section was imaged using more than 2,500 unique images. Individual components of the mouse kidney are shown in green and red, while the numerous nuclei are blue.
Katie Heiser
Double Helix Optics, LLC, Nikon STORM
This three-dimensional Double Helix super-resolution image shows the actin cytoskeleton of an individual African green monkey kidney cell. Here, the depth of the cell is color coded, with objects in purple as the bottom of the cell while those in red are at the top. Thick actin stress fibers are visible along with a network of thin actin filaments. These fibers and filaments enable the cell to signal to other cells, adhere to surfaces, and divide.
Esther Choi, Leinwand Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon A1R Laser Scanning Confocal
Specific disease-inducing mutations can be studied on the molecular and cellular level through a viral expression system. Here, the individual sarcomere bundles of cardiac muscle cells (myocytes) are shown in red. Myocytes expressing the disease-causing protein (shown in green) can be distinguished from those that have not been infected. The nuclei are stained in blue.
Maureen Bjerke, Leinwand Lab
BioFrontiers Institute, Nikon Laser Scanning Confocal
Stem cells have the amazing capability of essentially becoming any other cell type depending on their growth conditions. Larger structures, such as muscle fibers and organs, can also be formed from large fields of stem cells. Here, a field of stem cells (blue) with several pre-muscle cells (red) are growing together to be used for the controlled study of skeletal muscle diseases.