Biojewellery Diary

Show goes on...

tobie — 2007-06-01T12:14:10+00:00

Biojewellery is complete. It's currently on show at Central Middlesex Hospital, part of the North West London Hospitals NHS Trust. The exhibition is part of NWLH Arts programme, and has been kindly supported by its director Candice Hurwitz, and Karen Sarkissian at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity.

Have a look at documentation of the exhibition here, where you can also find a pdf version of the accompanying booklet.

This blog is likely to be quiet from now on, as there is a new project taking shape over here, it's called Material Beliefs.

Progress and evaluation...

tobie — 2006-08-31T21:53:36+00:00

As the project timeline stretches into the horizon, progress is being made. Biojewellery is now out of the funding period of the EPSRC award, but thanks to the support of Guys' & St Thomas' Charity a fine exhibition is being designed for the Atrium 1 space at Guy's Hospital. This is now due to open in early November, and will include full documentation of the project, and the final jewellery.

After the show the we aim to publish a full project report, but in the meantime some details from this evaluation have been added to the website.

ENTRY 2006

tobie — 2006-08-31T19:31:53+00:00

The ENTRY2006 exhibition takes place from 26th of August through the 3rd of December, 2006, and will be held at the newly opened former coal-washing plant, the “Kohlenwäsche”, at the Zollverein. As a part of the "ENTRY PARADISE" area of the exhibition, Biojewellery is represented by with a DVD outlining the project development. Thanks to the event organisers for including the presentation, which can be downloaded as a QuickTime slide show with a transcript for the DVD subtitles available as a German and English text file.

Scaffolds for Cells

tobie — 2006-08-16T10:25:53+00:00

Cells from Harriet and Lynz had been cryogenically frozen while we were waiting for the scaffolds. As their cell cultures became more populous, each was divided into two flasks. When thoses cultures were ready, each was split again. This is called a passage, it is a method used to culture a large amount of cells. But if too many passages are attempted, the cells become less viable. So they were frozen at a healthy stage.

Now we have our scaffolds, so we can resuscitate the cells, and apply them to the scaffolds. The images below show a block of the scaffold material, and one of the ring forms we are using. This is a material called "HA/TCP", which is a combination of hydroxyapatite (HA) and, er something else. The TCP part breaks down more rapidly than the HA, which holds it's shape for longer, allowing the cells to proliferate, then mineralise – the point where they harden. we are also using a pure HA version. More about the properties of these materials here

Thanks to Dr John Merry at Sheffield based Dytech for all his help in preparing these scaffolds.

The Biggest Visual Power Show

tobie — 2006-06-30T18:13:03+00:00

Biojewellery was presented at a rapid pace during a 5 minute slot at The Biggest Visual Power Show. Staged in the renovated coal-wash building at Vollverein, near Essen in Germany, this was a dynamic event featuring over 20 presentations. The event website has some details on the content:

"The Powershow 2006 has the topic of Next Nature. Our established view on nature needs reconsideration. How do we look at next nature? Highways, airports and supermarkets are part of our natural environment. The media are dissapearing, nature takes over. The things we design end up designing us. Over twenty Artists, philosophers, designers, filmmakers and politicians gave a five minute presentation."

An image from the event (thanks to Frau-K for the this) is follwed by a pic of the postrer for the show, which took place on the 23rd June

Guy's & St Tomas' Open Day 2006

tobie — 2006-06-12T17:05:54+00:00

Ian made an appearance at St Thomas' Hospital open day recently, showing Biojewellery along with examples of new bioimplant materials and examples of medical applications. This is perhaps the first family-friendly outing for the project!

More details of the event are available here and a flyer can be found here.

Lynz donates cells

tobie — 2006-05-28T13:17:54+00:00

Lynz is the second cell donor, coming in for a wisdom tooth extraction at Guys on May 23rd. The first Image below comes directly after the extraction, where a couple of stitches are going in.

The second shows the explanted bone tissue which is the source for culturing subsequent cells. The chip is broken into smaller pieces to give a larger surface area for the initial stages, were cells migrate out of the tissue into a liquid nutrient.

Thanks Lynz and Trish for coming all the way to London for the operation, more images to follow soon.

Bone chips donated

tobie — 2006-04-18T19:51:04+00:00

Harriet had 2 wisdom teeth reomoved at Guys hospital today, providing an opportunity to take bone fragments for tissue culturing. The samples can be seen (and not seen, these are small chips) below, first in culture medium and then under an electron microscope.

The fragments can then be digested, where they are broken down into different sets of cells. These cells can then be seperated, and osteblasts can be isolated, then cultured into a bigger sample of cells.

Full documentation of this process will be online soon.

Dana media coverage

tobie — 2006-01-19T11:06:15+00:00

A public event featuring Biojewellery took place at London's Dana Centre yesterday evening. The venue was filled to capacity, and there was a lively crowd and some good debate about the project. The space was divided into 4 zones, focussing on different aspect of the research, download a pdf guide of the event for more detail.

The event recieved a range of media interest, thanks to Lauren at the Science Museum, and Aine and Sue at Royal College of Art who arranged interviews with the couples and researchers. The project featured on Channel 4 News (online version here) Sky News and Channel 5 News, as well as appearing in The Evening Standard, The Sunday Times and the Guardian's saturday Guide. An analysis of where and how the project has been presented in the media will be an important part of the project evaluation.

Thanks to everyone who came to the Dana and contributed, especially Susanne Buck who managed the event.

18th january Dana event

tobie — 2006-01-04T11:58:57+00:00

Biojewellery makes an appearance at London's Dana Centre later this month, press release here. This is a free evening event on wednesday 18tt, where you can come and find out more about the project by talking to the designers, scientists and couples involved. The event is open to all, and starts at 7pm.

Discovery Filming

tobie — 2005-10-05T18:29:08+00:00

We spend a day filming with a production company. Based in Australia, they make features which get aired on discovery Channel, which was a great oppurtunity for the project. Michael Venning came along to document the day, and Michelle and Ashley came in to talk about their reasons for getting involved. Image below is of Ian, who has not made an appearence on the site yet, and below that a break-down of the filming schedule.

Saturday September 17th:
07.40-08.30-Drive to Walthamstow
08.30-10.45- film couple, Michelle and Ashley at their home in Walthamstow
10.45-11.30-Drive to Hatton Gardens
11.30-13.00-Film Michele and Ashley in two jewellery stores and on the street.
13.00-13.30-lunch
13.30-14.00-Drive from Hatton Gardens to Guys Hospital
14.00-18.00-I/V Dr Thompson and mock up (to some degree the process of putting osteoblasts onto platform) at Guy's Hospital.
18.00-20.30-wrap and drive to Canterbury

Tuesday September 20th:
07.30-08.45-Film pretties around London Bridge
08.45-09.30-Drive to RCA
09.30-12.00-Film various sequences at the RCA involving Nikki and Tobie
12.00-13.00-lunch
13.00-15.00-Michele and Ashley join us at the RCA to film their sequence with Tobie and Nikki.
15.00-16.00-Drive to Guy's Hospital and set up for mock wisdom tooth extraction with Dr Thompson.
16.30-film mock preparation of Michelle's wisdom tooth extraction and tiny mock up of Ashley in the chair at Guys Hospital...
18.00-wrap.

Software training

tobie — 2005-10-05T18:07:48+00:00

Ian Nikki and myself have just spent 2 days learning to use Mimics, which takes images produced by medical scanners and turns them into 3D computer models. CT scans are used to look at bone tissue, and MRI is better suited to the imaging of soft tissues. The main purpose of modelling these scans to to provide better visualisation of a patient's body.

Ian is lead by Anika in the image below, cleaning up a model of a knee joint:

3D data can also be output as solid objects for medical staff to rehearse complex surgery. The image below shows a skull which has been printed from files processed in Mimics, using a rapid prototyping machine. Prosthetics can then be modelled to fill the hole in the floor of this patients eye, well in advance of the operation. Using similar techniques, Biojewellery anticipates a time when cells will be grown into precise shapes, to fit the damaged area with new bone.

Exhibition in Jerusalem

tobie — 2005-10-05T17:38:37+00:00

Biojewellery is showing at The Israel Museum in Jerusalem. There is a range of work from London designers here, though the contributors are from all over, as evidenced by the flags in the image below at the show opening.

With work selected by Tony Dunne and Fiona Raby, and curated by Alex Ward the exhibition is significant because it's perhaps the first time such a broad selection of critical design has been put together. So what is critical design? You can download a pdf which accompanied the show here, kindly provided by Philippa at Graphic Though Facility.

Other images below show a lectire about the work which Nikki and I contributed to, and an image of the rings we are designing for Harriett and Matt.

A range of responses to the show can be seen here, here and here.

Biojewellery on "small WORLD"

tobie — 2005-10-05T15:46:27+00:00

I Recently gave an interview for "small WORLD" which uploads their material as a podcast. Joseph lead the intervew and we talked about the project process, and the role of deigners in scientific research.

Decomissioned Virology Lab

tobie — 2005-08-16T18:41:10+00:00

A little bit tangental this one, but surely interesting. Nikki and I are working at Kings College London (KCL), helping set up a rapid prototyping lab. This is the machine that is being installed, and it will be used to build physical models of damaged areas of bone and soft tissues, to aid surgeons in facial reconstruction. I'll follow up on this post soon, when the unit has arrived.

KCL is based at the site of Guy's hospital, and the department we are temporarily working in has amongst other things a materials lab and a cell lab, which are always glad of additional equipment. Enter the decomissioned Virology Lab, located at St Thomas' Hospital (the sister site of Guys) in a building in the process of being emptied for use by it's new owner. This lab was partially cleared when it was decontaminated some years ago, though this wasn't very thorough so we helped move glasswear and furniture between the two sites. The lab was a medical Mary Celeste complete with lab coats, staff photos and a class 2 laboratory - I'm reliably informed there are only 2 class 3 labs in the UK – which was thankfully locked. My hands still feel itchy though.