Biotechnology and Art By John Madrigal

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics

June 6,2012

Honors 177

Professor Victoria Vesna

A Culture Divided

Mon, 04/09/2012

My name is John Madrigal. I am a senior majoring in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics (MIMG). It’s unclear what I’ll be doing after graduation, but I am optimistic of my future to become a doctor will not be impeded. Growing up I always had a knack for the culture of science. It began by having a good understanding of mathematics and later found its way to biology, chemistry, and physics. I did dabble in the art field by learning the trumpet, but later grew out of it as high school went along. It was encouraged when I was younger to try to broaden my horizons, to try to feel out what I was good at and where I can potentially develop a career. It wasn’t until college where I was heavily encouraged by my educational institution to determine a specialty by choosing a major. In the Two Cultures lecture, the separation of humanities and science placed educational institutions in possessing a hand in this problem. At UCLA, there is a distinction between humanities and science through the separation of North and South campus. The architecture between the two parts of UCLA are different and there are stereotypes behind being a part of North or South campus. There were even T-shirts being made to emphasize the fact that the two are different.

It is encouraging that this gap between humanities and science is starting to come closer, shown by the creation of this class. The rapid development of technology, especially the internet, has created a massive growth of information to be shared which encourages collaboration. Pop culture has been a center for many of these collaborations. These range from different fashion designers coming together and making stunning pieces of work to different recording artists and producers making mash ups with new sounds. In the lecture we saw last week, scientist and artist are attempting to bridge the gap and bring art and science back together to the days of Leonardo Di Vinci. Hopefully in the near future, the internet helps play a role in the closing of the gap and maybe one day have the term science and art become synonymous once again.

My Favorite Part of the Morning

Sun, 04/15/2012

Most morning, before I leave for school, I have breakfast and drink a full glass of orange juice. An essential part of my morning ritual, I never really thought about where this particular drink came from, and what had it gone through from beginning to its final destination to me.

Orange juice begins at orange groves. The major distributors of oranges are the United States and Brazil. In the United States, Florida and California are the leading states for growing oranges for the nation. Large plantations are devoted to cultivating oranges and harvested seasonally. They are picked from these plantations where they are sent to extraction plants where the juice is collected, pasteurized and sent for distribution. There are two types of orange juice, fresh and concentrated. Concentrated, which I was unfamiliar of, is when the juice is extracted and the water is taken out from it, making it concentrated. When it goes into the distribution process, water is put back in and the juice is then drunk.

Picture: Orange Juice Process

Orange juice is inflicted with a disease that has no known cure at the moment called Huanglongbing. Known as the Yellow Dragon Disease or HLB, is a bacterial infection carried by psyllid which causes a disease that makes oranges turn green, called greening. It may seem like a early orange fruit, but it is a disease that can kill the entire tree all together. Due to this bacterium, there have been many different measures to combat the disease including the use of pesticides and research in genetic engineering. Research includes sequencing of genomes of different citrus trees and the bacteria itself to try and develop a resistance to fight HLB. Attempts at cross breeding different citrus fruits that have developed

some form of resistance are being tested to find a potential cure. Even the use of guava leaves have been shown to provide some type of cure, but research has not been fruitful in helping oranges.

Picture: "Greening" of Oranges

The future in the orange industry holds the potential of biotechnology intervening to sustain the production similarly to papaya. HLB is a crippling disease that has found no cure and seems that biotechnology will have a stake in finding that cure. Whether or not it occurs today, or tomorrow, if the state of the orange industry follows a continuing decline, it will be important to develop transgenic oranges whether we want to have them or not. Some research has been developed to create a transgenic orange called blood oranges which is not for HLB, but for heart health benefits to help prevent heart attack and stroke.

Picture: Not a grapefruit, but blood oranges.

Luckily I have an orange tree in my backyard, so if at any point I do feel uncomfortable with GMO of oranges, I have a backup.

References:

http://www.newsytype.com/3535-citrus-greening-disease-attacks-florida-orange-groves/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9138762/Genetically-modified-blood-oranges-developed-by-scientists.html

http://www.thegrower.com/news/citrus-greening/Genetically-modified-orange-trees-set-for-Florida-field-trials-137441598.html

http://www.floridasnatural.com/juices/not-from-concentrate

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/12/03/us-gmo-oranges-idUSTRE6B24ZE20101203

Cows Are a Man’s Best Friend (+Strange Culture)

Sun, 04/22/2012

I am apologetic to any vegetarians and vegans, but I enjoy eating meat, specifically steak. I do not get to eat steak that often, but when I do, I try and savor the experience as much as I can. In high school, I remember my English class read an excerpt from “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, which described the process of how meat was packaged. After reading it, I was sick to my stomach the entire day, not being able to eat a thing the entire day, let alone meat. However, the next day I was perfectly fine, back to my meat eating ways.

When it came to write this blog, it reminded me of the way carnivores such as myself view meat. Before reading the excerpt my relationship toward a cow was strictly food based. I knew it through slices of steak and ground beef cheeseburger, not a face. This is probably due to not seeing cows on an everyday bases and connecting the meat I eat to a face. After I had read the excerpt, I became disgusted, mostly of the in depth description Sinclair used to how cows were being treated and eventually packaged. My view that day changed from apathy to empathy toward the cow as if it were my own dog.

The relationship I have with a dog is completely different than my relationship with a cow. I view dogs as companions and have emotional feelings toward. With a cow however, I have little emotional connection and view as a food source. In some cultures it is acceptable to eat dogs and in others it is unacceptable to eat cows. The view we have for animals is not universal and no definitive line can be drawn on how to treat a certain species of animal. In my case, I think it is fine to prepare cows as food, but to treat dogs more sympathetically.

This translates to transgenic animals, specifically cows, where I have little/no problems with using these animals for genetic engineering. Some benefits have come from research such as transgenic cows having the ability to produce human antibodies at the expense of the cows antibodies. More recent studies have shown scientist to develop cows that have the ability to produce human milk and others show the ability to produce therapeutic proteins from cow milk.

The movie Strange Culture was fascinating because what we would consider as art science was seen by the government as bioterrorism. It seemed that the people prosecuting Kurtz are unaware of the ability for an artist to express his project using biotechnology. They found it suspicious for an artist to possess such technology and the only logical reason they could come up with is for Kurtz to have ulterior motives and use it as bioterrorism. It’s remarkable how the times have changed from Da Vinci where art and science can be found in the same room and hopefully this can change back to the merging of art and science

References:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/17/BU101956.DTL

http://www.dailypaul.com/161035/transgenics-genetically-modified-cows-produce-human-milk

http://www.cyberspaceag.com/farmanimals/beefcattle/beefhistory.htm

http://www.pegasus.wur.nl/wever.internet/applications/SSG_PegasusViewer/GetImage.aspx?ID=73

http://www.capitalcentury.com/1906.html

Live Forever

Sun, 05/06/2012

When watching the video lectures, I was really interested in the process of preserving flesh. I first looked to the Egyptians and mummification. The reason they preserved the body of humans and pets, is they believed that if the body were to survive so would there soul to live on in the afterlife. The process included dehydration, removal of organs (intestine, stomach, brain, etc.), cleaning, and wrapping with cloth. This ritual is one of the earliest forms of preservation, but not used as a learning purpose as it is most commonly used today.

Picture: Water is replaced by acetone and then acetone is replaced by a plastic solvent like silicon to embed the plastic within the organ (forced impregnation).

Fast forward to 1977 with the invention of plastination by Gunther von Hagens. Hagens was inspired when he worked as an anatomy assistant and wondered of using polymers on the inside of organs and

muscle instead of the outside which was usually the case. Esentially, plastination is process of preserving bodies by replacing the water and fat that is naturally in them with plastic. Common polymers used today are silicon, epoxy, and polyester-copolymer. Hagens ran with the idea of plastination and created the Body’s World Exhibit which travels all around the world with different focuses such as the heart exhibit or the animal exhibit. There have been similar body exhibits such as Bodies Revealed which travels around in the US.

Link: http://youtu.be/sSViLS4-kaI

It was intriguing to discover that the cadavers being exhibited were real people, not statues. People who donate their body for the use of science are displayed in these exhibits in hopes that they can educate people beyond their lifetime. I found it breathtaking to actually have someone immortalized in this art form and to have the human experience celebrated with the invention of plastination. I was also interested in the different context preservation has from Egyptians to now. Egyptians wished to live in the afterlife by preserving their bodies and allowing their soul to live on. With the Body’s World exhibit, these people, whether we know their name or not, are able to live forever through inspiration and learning.

References:

http://www.historylink101.net/egypt_1/religion_mummification_history.htm

http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/exhibitions/current_exhibitions.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastination

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbstu0_newca-com-body-worlds-plastination_tech

http://www.kingtutone.com/mummies/mummification/

http://www.bodiesrevealed.com/

First Blood

Mon, 05/14/2012

In the lectures we viewed this week I was intrigued about Kathy High’s Vampire Study Group. Not because of the emergence of the vampire culture, but of the mystic property that our blood holds. From general knowledge, we know that our blood is powerful. It is a property that gives us life and that a pint of blood can save 3 lives when we donate it to the Red Cross. There is also a saying that blood is thicker than water and through history, some families have tried to keep their blood “pure” through inbreeding. When High was exhibiting Blood Wars, it gave blood another dimension to the many tropes it already has. In our blood we have Red and White blood cells. Red blood cells help transport the oxygen needed out to the body and export out carbon dioxide out of the body. White blood cells are the sentinels that guard the body from infection, or our immune system. What Kathy has done has pitted these soldiers of our body against one another and tried to determine who has the greatest army.

Picture: Macrophage (orange) surrounded by bacteria (blue) fighting off infection

I was intrigued by this concept because I took a quarter of immunology and never really thought of an art exhibit that would have two people battle each other’s immune system. This was a neat exhibit to show in a small scale of the properties of blood has on not just supporting life, but for fighting for it. We know of this small scale experiment through tissue transplantation. When organ donors are chosen, genetic similarities are important in order to have a successful transplantation. If this is not found, the immune system can amount an attack on that newly acquired organ and reject it altogether.

Link to video if not working still: http://vimeo.com/20421154

It was great that she challenged some of the ideas blood has gained over the years such as pure bloods, blood letting, and blue bloods, and how this life source can attack each other when not compatible. Above is a video of 2 combatants that were put in an arena where eventually the red wins out. Each blood had a nice back story to engage the audience in the imaginative spectacle of two armies battles each other. It is a bit confusing at first, but you can see that some green ones begin to disappear and red ones gain a yellowish color representing engulfment. What was neat was after the tournament was finished, the winner would receive a blood trophy at the end to signify the dominant blood.

References:

http://vampirestudygroup.com/bloodwars/

www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/02/11/133655669/my-neutrophils-can-kick-yo...">http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/02/11/133655669/my-neutrophils-can-...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transplant_rejection

www.fi.edu/learn/heart/blood/white.html">http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/blood/white.html

www.fi.edu/learn/heart/blood/red.html">http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/blood/red.html

DNA Computing

Sun, 05/20/2012

Alan Turing is known to be the father of computer science. During WWII he was an integral player in cryptology and developing ways to send as well as intercept messages during the war. In the modern day, computers have evolved in smaller size and speed since Turing’s day and always seems to be changing with every passing moment. Currently, technology follows a trend known as Moore’s Law. It states that every 18 months the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles. This represents an exponential growth curve on the way computers evolve and is indicative of how technology changes. Those who know of this law know that eventually, Moore’s Law will come to a halt because the limitations of putting transistors on a circuit are limited by silicon, the material we use to develop these circuits. Eventually we will reach a limit and can’t put anymore transistors.

The future that researchers are looking into is DNA computing. DNA computing is the use of DNA instead of silicon chips to solve complex mathematical problems. Researchers believe that DNA computing will be the future of computers and will be the technology that helps get past Moore’s Law. There are many advantages to DNA computing over our current mode that make it an ideal next step to developing computers; size (much smaller), large supply (cheap), parallel processing (vs. linear in modern computers). One researcher discovered that DNA can solve a complex math problem known as Hamiltonian Path Problem with what they called a bacterial computer.

Picture: Representation of Hamiltonian Path Problem using DNA computing

Our project, at its current infancy, deals with the development of these bacterial/cellular computers and the celebration of Alan Turing and cryptology. The development of these DNA computers will allow the storage of a large amount of information that hasn’t been achieved before by our current computers. We will be able to store all the information in the world with the use of only 1 pound of DNA. The project we propose deals with the ability to store information as DNA in cells. It would be a new way of sending coded messages to people and we felt using a military motif like Turing was in to establish this idea. Common techniques such as PCR and DNA sequencing will be the way to extract the information.

Picture: The Bombe, the computer tool made of vacuum tubes that helped cryptologist decipher German intelligence.

When dealing with this new concept, it brought up controversial issues of how this new technology could be used. We are in the development of bio-computers, living organisms that are able to solve complex problems. In a sense, cells already do this by having gene regulation, but now we will use this concept to solve mathematical problems that can’t be solved by our current computing power. An astonishing idea, and to think that our possible future is not metallic robots, but beings formed by DNA computers. In addition, we bring to the table the manipulation of humans by being able to inject these onto people. It relates to the development of artificial intelligence with these DNA computers and having them integrated to a person. Many issues about this project emerge and we hope that we can bring these to light to discuss with the public.

References

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/dna-computer.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moores_law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_computing

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/science/21DNA.html

http://www.jbioleng.org/content/pdf/1754-1611-3-11.pdf

Conclusion

Learning about Biotechnology and Art was a different experience. Being a science major, our intellect is measured by the amount one is able to replicate ideas the professor has instructed you to learn. This class went a different approach and measure my intellect based on creativity, a process that was frightening at first, but settled as a fun and unique experience. The nature of the course being science related helped ease me into this process and expand on ideas I never thought I can create. The midterm (not published) challenged not only my creativity, but my science knowledge, and how I can put those two together to create a piece that can manifest into reality. Before entering this class, I couldn’t believe science and art can exist together in a room, but now leaving this class, I can’t think of any other way.