BioArt and Education
Our project this year relies quite heavily on the understanding of the lipid metabolism in yeast, but even those of us who have been studying it for a whole iGEM project can struggle to visualize it’s fluid complexity.
Therefore we thought it would be a really interesting idea if we could develop a physical model that could illustrate the cell cell membrane in both an educational and elegant way.
Partnertnering together with Thomas Alexander’s father, Gregory Alexander, a classically trained goldsmith with a work shop in Asheville, North Carolina, we designed something that we think is going to be cell chic!
Figure 1. The first figure shows the cell membrane in all of its complexity. Note the phospholipid bilayer, the embedded peripheral and integral membrane proteins, the Glycoproteins reaching out from within the membrane, and most importantly the Cholesterol within!
Figure 2. is a hand sketch that we developed to illustrate the complex multi layered relationships between the phospholipids, cholesterols and membrane proteins above, (connected with jump rings marked in red) and the mannoproteins with their oligosaccharide tails tangled in their mesh of Glucan, and Chitin representing the outer cell wall. This segment above represents a short section of a completed chain.
Figure 3. Shows an initial sketch of the stylizations that we intend to have on the finished piece. With the 2 level chain composed of cellular subunits made out of silver, representing the phospholipid bilayer and cell wall respectively, and studded with Brass cholesterol molecules to illustrate where our substrate would be localized in the cell.
Figure 4. Here you can see the first draft of the necklace coming together. The large disks located to either side of the central oval are membrane proteins, and will be filed into shape. The Central oval is planned to be a smaller yeast cell that is budding from our larger plasma membrane and serves as a pendent and counterweight.