As part of Not Invented by Nature, organised by the Helmholtz Initiative Synthetic Biology, C-LAB’s Howard Boland was invited to undertake a four week experimental laboratory residency at German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg.
The residency outcome will be exhibited at the BioQuant Centre in Heidelberg within the framework of the international research symposium Synthetic Biology – from understanding to application on December 9 - 11, 2013.
Howard’s project - Cellular Propeller - explores what he calls the fourth domain of synthetic biology where bio matter become mobilised to perform novel behaviours - unintended by nature.
During his residency at DKFZ, he developed a series of small scaffolds with the intention of making these motile. By combining body plan design with attachment mechanisms, cells will be able to to propel and move artificial mega structures.
For his initial experiment, Howard adopted methods from a scientific paper where researchers at Caltech and Harvard produced a small swimming plastic structure using heart cells. Methods were adopted using DIY alternatives but was instrumental in establishing parameters needed for creating motile structures.
To move these scaffold, heart cells (primary cardiomyocytes) were harvested from new born rats and seeded onto the scaffold. Inevitably, this raises ethical questions of using such material for the purpose of art making.
Based on this initial work, Howard has been designing an experiment that uses sperms cells to drive a wheel-shaped propeller using chemical attachment. Using ones own bio matter - raises a different series of questions relating to ownership and ethics.
The upcoming exhibition will be shown as a documentation process of the developing project and how it envisions this field of bioengineering as a possible area for art making.
