Canis Lupus Victoria Amanita

Year: 
2019
Ranking: 
Entrant
Artist: 
Elijah Shelton (Graduate Student)
Department: 
Mechanical Engineering

Description

Cells from the kidney of a 1958 Cocker Spaniel sport membranes painted green with a protein from a jellyfish and actin fibers stained red from death cap mushroom poison. This slightly askew sample reveals various depths as one's eye moves across a region spanning just a third of a millimeter across.

Canis Lupus refers to the cells' origin in the dog, which itself originated from the wolf. Victoria refers the species of jellyfish which contributed the GFP. Amanita is the genus containing the toxic death cap mushrooms which produce phalloidin. All three are deconstructed, decontextualized, and reconstituted here, evocative in a way of some modernist cuisine.

To prepare this dish, MDCK-2 cells with E-Cadherin GFP label were grown to confluence in a glass Matek dish and then fixed with paraformaldehyde and stained with phalloidin to visualize F-Actin. The sample was improperly mounted before imaging on a confocal microscope. The skew in the mount causes the depth of the image to shift from bottom left to upper right. The region shown measures 354 microns across.

CSEPSchuller LabCNSIUCSBMOXI