Search Results for: anatomically correct

Artificial embryo shows early potential for medical therapies, not babies – Gant Daily

Trying to mimic the early stages of reproduction, Cambridge University researchers cultivated two types of mouse stem cells in a Petri dish and watched an embryo emerge one that closely resembled a natural mouse embryo in its architecture, its development process and its ability to assemble itself.

The artificial structure shows promise as a tool for medical research, though it cannot develop into an actual baby.

I not only want to understand the basic biology of development but also why it goes awry in the early stages of up to 70% of human pregnancies, said Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, senior author of the research, which was published Thursday in the journal Science.

Natures way

After an egg is fertilized by a sperm, it begins to divide multiple times. This process generates a small, free-floating ball of stem cells: a blastocyst.

Within a mammalian blastocyst, the cells that will become the body of the embryo (embryonic stem cells) begin to cluster at one end. Two other types of cells, the extra-embryonic trophoblast stem cells and the endoderm stem cells, begin to form patterns that will eventually become a placenta and a yolk sac, respectively.

To develop further, the blastocyst has to implant in the womb, where it transforms into a more complex architecture. However, implantation hides the embryo from view and from experimentation.

In the study, Zernicka-Goetz wanted to replicate developing embryonic events using stem cells.

Other scientists who have attempted the same thing have used only embryonic stem cells, but these experiments, though they have yielded embryoid bodies, have not been entirely successful. The artificial bodies never follow the same chain of events found in nature, and they lack the structure of a natural embryo.

Zernicka-Goetz, a professor in Cambridges Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, hypothesized that the trophoblast stem cells communicate with the embryonic stem cells and guide their development.

She and her colleagues placed embryonic and trophoblast stem cells within an extra-cellular matrix: the non-cell component found in all tissues and organs that provides biochemical support to cells. This formed a scaffold on which the two stem cell types could co-develop.

The embryonic stem cells sent chemical messages to the trophoblast stem cells and vice versa, said Zernicka-Goetz. Essentially, the different stem cells began to talk to each other, and this helped the embryonic stem cells, she explained.

They respond by turning on particular developmental gene circuits or by physically changing shape to accomplish some architectural remodeling, she wrote in an email. This happens in normal embryogenesis and it is what we are trying to recreate in the culture dish.

Ultimately, the cells organized themselves into a structure that not only looked like an embryo, it behaved like one, with anatomically correct regions developing at the right time and in the right place.

The results were spectacular they formed structures that developed in a way strongly resembling embryos in their architecture and expressing specific genes in the right place and at the right time, Zernicka-Goetz wrote.

Despite its resemblance to a real embryo, this artificial embryo will not develop into a healthy fetus, the researchers said. That would require the endoderm stem cells, which does other things that are most likely necessary for further development, said Zernicka-Goetz.

Whether adding these to the system would be enough to achieve further development, I dont know, she said.

Correct placental development is essential for proper implantation into either the womb or a substitute for the womb, she said. To achieve this will be some time off.

Therapeutic applications

Robin Lovell-Badge, an embryologist and head of the Division of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute, found the new research to be interesting on a number of counts.

He wrote in a commentary published with the study on the website of the journal Science that past research suggests that the cells fated to become support structures (placenta and yolk sac) for the embryo in fact organize the cell types within the embryo. Meanwhile, the new research suggests that it is the combination of the two cell types (embryonic and trophectoderm) that is important while the third cell type, endoderm, may not be essential.

According to Dr. Christos Coutifaris, president-elect of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the new study is significant because it shows how the cells that are extra-embryonic the ones that are going to give rise to the placenta actually play a role in the development of cells that eventually become the fetus.

Its not two completely separate entities, Coutifaris said, referring to the embryo and its support structure. Understanding how the two types of cells interact and the chemical signals they exchange is really, really critical.

Zernicka-Goetzs model has practical applications in research, where it can be used to better understand the conversation between embryonic stem cells and trophoblast stem cells, he said. You can manipulate these cells molecularly to try to understand these interactions and how early development occurs pre-implantation.

According to Kyle E. Orwig, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences, and molecular genetics and biochemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, Zernicka-Goetzs model will enable investigators to investigate the effects of genetic manipulations, environmental toxins, therapeutics and factors on embryo development. Artificial embryos represent a powerful tool for research that might reduce (but not eliminate) the need for human embryos, Orwig said.

Dr. David Adamson, a reproductive endocrinologist, an adjunct clinical professor at Stanford University and chairman of the International Committee Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies, believes that its very important to continue to do basic science research in reproductive medicine.

How our species reproduces is very important to know, Adamson said. When you learn about reproduction and learn how cells reproduce and how cells differentiate and what makes things happen normally and what makes thing happen abnormally, then there clearly are a lot of potential therapeutic applications.

Past advances in reproductive medicine have helped scientists prevent genetic-based diseases, he said. Specifically, in vitro fertilization techniques have allowed doctors to biopsy and conduct genetic tests on embryos to prevent inherited illnesses, including Huntingtons.

In vitro fertilization is fundamentally transformative, said Adamson, who sees the new research as adding to the wealth of knowledge about this procedure.

In fact, Zernicka-Goetz works in the same nondescript brick building on the Cambridge campus where Robert Edwards, a reproductive medicine pioneer, once toiled. Edwards developed the Nobel Prize-winning technique of in vitro fertilization, which eventually resulted in the birth of the first test tube baby, Louise Brown.

Helping families have babies is the most obvious contribution of in vitro fertilization. Today, Adamson said, there have been approximately 6.5 million babies born using in vitro fertilization since the procedure was first developed. An exact number is not known because many countries, including China, do not have registries to count them, explained Adamson.

Meanwhile, Zernicka-Goetz said she will continue her work on embryonic development as she and the members of her lab are totally driven by a curiosity to understand these fundamental aspects of life.

She plans to use human stem cells to create a similar embryonic model. Then she plans to use that model to learn more about normal embryonic development and understand when it goes wrong without needing to experiment on an actual human embryo.

The work also continually teaches us about the properties of stem cells, Zernicka-Goetz said. She added that this knowledge is useful for developing therapies to replace faulty tissues in so-called regenerative medicine.

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Artificial embryo shows early potential for medical therapies, not babies - Gant Daily

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Happy Endings Review: Sister Act and Star Crossed Lovers

Never before has Dave's steak truck gotten so much attention in two consecutive Happy Endings episodes!

In "The Incident," Penny accidentally got the truck stolen when she borrowed it to move furniture. In the second installment, "Bros Before Bros," Dave went to war with a fellow steak truck owner known as "The Brazilian."

The Happy Endings happy hour was filled with sisterly fights, forbidden romances and a life sized Brad doll. Let's discuss.

Penny's Wedding Day

In the first half of the hour, Max's hairdresser died and he needed a replacement. After trusting Dave for some stupid reason, he ended up looking like his clone, highlighted goatee and all. Jane and Alex to the rescue! Besides better skills, Jane and Alex's hair dresser played by RuPaul had a major advantage: gossip. Max being Max, he was obviously enticed and went to town with his new information. He's a troublemaker, he couldn't resist!

Everybody knows there are just certain things that are better left unsaid, especially within families. I have four siblings all who are married so I technically now have 8. You gotta know when to pick and choose your battles. Sometimes airing your grievances can just make it all worse, especially when you're Jane and Alex. The girls fighting went all the way back to childhood when there was an all out cold war. 

Max and Brad did a little digging and found an article that talked about how the girls made up. Question posed by Max, what's creepier: the random anatomically correct doll of Brad or the fact that a local newspaper was super obsessed with Jane and Alex? At least the paper had some answers. Nana Kerkovich to the rescue and all was right in the world again! Also Dave found his truck and had to sanitize it after the guy who stole it, admitted to making love to the meat...literally.

On to the second episode: Steak Me Home Tonight got even more attention as Dave braced for opening day at Wrigley field when he'd have to face his steak truck rival: The Brazilian. With the girls off planning Penny's wedding, the boys helped Dave plot to win the steak-off. Sidenote, how timely was Alex's comment about North Korea:

You had Jane plan you a backup wedding in an underground bunker just in case North Korea quote grew a pair, but you never thought of who's gonna walk you down the aisle? | permalink

What's scary about that timely and relevant comment was that it was made my Alex. Did you see her 4th grade book report that Max found? "F, is this a joke?" Amazing. Enter Penny's long lost dad who abandoned her to be an actor at a young age. He had a hard road with having to impress Jane, but he managed to do so after buying Penny her dream dress and getting involved in the steak truck showdown.

That showdown may never have happened but of course Max had to make trouble once again and sleep with the competition's son. Oh Max, what are we going to do with you? If it weren't for the fact that your actions resulted in a Ladybugs reference, I might have been kinda mad at your for messing things up for Dave!

He's not lying. He once Ladybugs'd himself into a Jr. High girls soccer tournament, bet against the team, and threw the game. | permalink

Amazing and under-appreciated movie reference. This is why I love Happy Endings! I thought this week's back to back episodes were better than last weeks. How about you guys? Hit the comments! 

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/04/happy-endings-review-sister-act-and-star-crossed-lovers/

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Edible Valentine’s Day Cards

Available at the Street Anatomy Gallery Store

Edible Valentine's Day Card by Emily Evans and Tasha Marks available at the Street Anatomy Gallery Store

Edible Valentine's Day Card by Emily Evans and Tasha Marks available at the Street Anatomy Gallery Store

Edible Valentine's Day Card by Emily Evans and Tasha Marks available at the Street Anatomy Gallery Store

Edible Valentine's Day Card by Emily Evans and Tasha Marks available at the Street Anatomy Gallery Store

The way to your lover’s heart is through their stomach. Give your sweetie an opportunity to digest your loving words with this edible Valentine’s Day card complete with an edible ink pen. They will EAT IT UP.

Designed in the style of Mexican papel picado the front features an Amore Eternal (Eternal Love) banner and two loving skulls facing a beautiful anatomical heart. Words/Love never tasted and felt so good.

  • Includes 1 edible card, 1 edible ink pen, and 1 inedible envelope
  • 5 7/8″ x 8 1/8″ folded, 11 3/4″ x 8 1/8″ open
  • Blank inside
  • Ingredients: Potato starch, vegetable oil, water, E120.
  • $12.50 at the Street Anatomy Gallery Store!

Illustration by medical artist Emily Evans. Handmade in London by Tasha Marks of Animal Mineral Vegetable.

 

 

There’s more!

For those of you in and around London, you can purchase these edible Valentine’s Day cards and much more at the Valentine’s Pop Up Shop February 8-10, 2013!

EYHO Valentines Day Pop Up Shop London Feb 7-10 2013

Valentines Day Pop Up Shop

LONDON FEBRUARY 8-10th, 2013

This Valentines Day, Street Anatomy will be participating in a romantic pop up shop with a twist – every single one of the gifts, cards or cakes on sale will be based on an anatomically correct heart. It is a venture from Miss Cakehead & Medical Illustrator Emily Evans.

The shop will feature a wide range of gifts for those who like their romance with an anatomical twist; the finest arts, crafts and cake makers having been commissioned for the project. Beautiful anatomical heart inspired pieces from jewellery, art prints, cards, embroidery, ceramics to cake, chocloate and anatomical flowers. Saying it with hearts and flowers has never been so scientific!

For more information, visit Miss Cakehead’s blog!

 

 

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/streetanatomy/OQuC/~3/6lkej7YRwCs/

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The Hot Faces of Eat Your Heart Out 2012

Eat Your Heart Out 2012 photography by Nathan Pask model Emily Evans

Body by Simon Preen, leggings from Black Milk, wig from Annabel’s Wigs

Eat Your Heart Out 2012 photography by Nathan Pask model Miss Cakehead brain from Conjurer’s Kitchen

Hooded top by Rachel Freire, swim suit from Black Milk, brain from Conjurer’s Kitchen

Eat Your Heart Out 2012 photography by Nathan Pask model Carla Valentine

Clothes from Rachel Freire, hat by George Jenkins

Eat Your Heart Out 2012 photography by Nathan Pask model Emily Evans Skull by Two Little Cats Bakery

Skull by Two Little Cats Bakery

Eat Your Heart Out 2012 photography by Nathan Pask model Emily Evans Skull by Two Little Cats Bakery

Eat Your Heart Out 2012 photography by Nathan Pask model Carla Valentine

Photographer: Nathan Pask
Photo assistants: Andras Bartok, George Newton
Wardrobe Stylist: Katie Antoniou
Stylist assistant: Lucy Nicholls
Make-up Artist: Emma Alexandra Watts
Hair Stylist: Holly Rudge
Models: Miss Cakehead, Emily Evans, Carla Valentine
With thanks to Steph at SNAP Studios.

The official photographs for Eat Your Heart Out 2012 have been released! Dreamed up by the wonderful Miss Cakehead and photographed by talented fashion photographer Nathan Pask, these photos feature a few of the ladies of EYHO in striking poses with delicious anatomical baked goods…both the light and dark sides of them.

EYHO, the anatomically correct bake shop taking place at St. Bart’s pathology museum in London October 26-28th, will showcase pathological cakes reflective of the specimens at the museum.  Fast track tickets to the event have already sold out, but you can still attend if you don’t mind waiting in line! If you’re in London, do not miss out on this event!

 

And yes that is Emily Evans one of the fabulous artists from our OBJECTIFY THIS exhibition!

 

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/streetanatomy/OQuC/~3/IqJzHas1AVk/

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"Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses: Visions of Death Made Beautiful in Italy" Exhibition, Final Open Hours TOMORROW, Saturday October 6, Noon-7 PM






Tomorrow--Saturday, October 6--is your last chance to check out "Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses: Visions of Death Made Beautiful in Italy," an exhibition featuring photographs by myself (some of which can be seen above) and waxworks by artists Eleanor Crook and Sigrid Sarda, on view at The Last Tuesday Society, 11 Mare Street, London All photographs and waxworks are for sale, and quite affordable, if I do say!

The exhibition will be view from Noon until 7:00 PM. Also on view will be the wonderful collection of taxidermy, naturalia, erotica, books and curiosities which comprises the spectacular Last Tuesday Society Giftshop.

Well worth a trip, I promise! Full details follow.

Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses: Visions of Death Made Beautiful in Italy
An exhibition of photographs by Joanna Ebenstein of the Morbid Anatomy Blog, The Morbid Anatomy Library and Observatory with waxworks by Eleanor Crook and Sigrid Sarda.
Date: TOMORROW: Saturday, October 6
Time: Noon-7:00 PM
Location: The Last Tuesday Society, 11 Mare Street, London, E8 4RP

In her many projects, ranging from photography to curation to writing, New York based Joanna Ebenstein utilizes a combination of art and scholarship to tease out the ways in which the pre-rational roots of modernity are sublimated into ostensibly "purely rational" cultural activities such as science and medicine.Much of her work uses this approach to investigate historical moments or artifacts where art and science, death and beauty, spectacle and edification, faith and empiricism meet in ways that trouble contemporary categorical expectations.In the exhibition "Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses" Ebenstein turns this approach to an examination of the uncanny and powerfully resonant representations of the dead, martyred, and anatomized body in Italy, monuments to humankind's quest to eternally preserve the corporeal body and defeat death in arenas sacred and profane.The artifacts she finds in both the churches, charnel houeses and anatomical museums of Italy complicate our ideas of the proper roles of--and divisions between--science and religion, death and beauty; art and science; eros and thanatos; sacred and profane; body and soul.

In this exhibition, you will be introduced to tantalizing visions of death made beautiful, uncanny monuments to the human dream of life eternal. You will meet "Blessed Ismelda Lambertini," an adolescent who fell into a fatal swoon of overwhelming joy at the moment of her first communion with Jesus Christ, now commemorated in a chillingly beautiful wax effigy in a Bolognese church; The Slashed Beauty, swooning with a grace at once spiritual and worldly as she makes a solemn offering of her immaculate viscera; Saint Vittoria, with slashed neck and golden ringlets, her waxen form reliquary to her own powerful bones; and the magnificent and troubling Anatomical Venuses, rapturously ecstatic life-sized wax women reclining voluptuously on silk and velvet cushions, asleep in their crystal coffins, awaiting animation by inquisitive hands eager to dissect them into their dozens of demountable, exactingly anatomically correct, wax parts.

Joanna Ebenstein: New York based visual artist and independent scholar Joanna Ebenstein runs the popular Morbid Anatomy Blog and the related Morbid Anatomy Library, where her privately held collection of books, art, artifacts, and curiosities are made available by appointment.

For the past 5 years, she has traveled the world, seeking out the most curious, obscure and macabre collections, public and private, front stage and back, and sharing her findings via her the Morbid Anatomy Blog as well as a variety of exhibitions including  Anatomical Theatre, a photographic survey of artifacts of great medical museums of the Western World; The Secret Museum, a photographic exhibition exploring the poetics of collections private and public, front stage and back.

Other exhibitions using history as their muse include Savior of Mothers: The Forgotten Ballet of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis  at the Center for Disease Control Museum and The Great Coney Island Spectacularium, an immersive investigation into the often bizarre spectacles of turn of the 20th century Coney Island at The Coney Island Museum.

She is the founding member of Observatory--a gallery and lecture space in Brooklyn, New York--and annual co-curator of The Congress for Curious Peoples, a 10-day series of lectures and performances investigating curiosity and curiosities, broadly considered and taking place at the Coney Island Museum.

Her work has been shown and published internationally, and she has lectured at museums and conferences around the world.

You can find out more about the show here, and view more images by clicking here.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2012/10/ecstatic-raptures-and-immaculate.html

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"Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses: Visions of Death Made Beautiful in Italy" Exhibition, Open Hours This Saturday, September 22, Noon-7 PM






This Saturday, September 22, will be one of your last chances to catch an unobstructed view of the exhibition "Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses: Visions of Death Made Beautiful in Italy" featuring my own photographs (some of which can be seen above) as well as waxworks by artists Eleanor Crook and Sigrid Sarda. All photographs and waxworks are also for sale.

The exhibition will be view at The Last Tuesday Society--11 Mare Street, London, E8 4RP--from noon until 7:00 PM. Also on view will be the wonderful collection of taxidermy, naturalia, erotica, books and curiosities which comprise the spectacular Last Tuesday Society Giftshop.

Well worth a trip, I promise! Full details follow; hope very much to see you there!

Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses: Visions of Death Made Beautiful in Italy
An exhibition of photographs by Joanna Ebenstein of the Morbid Anatomy Blog, The Morbid Anatomy Library and Observatory with waxworks by Eleanor Crook and Sigrid Sarda.
Date: This Saturday, September 22
Time: Noon-7:00 PM
Location: The Last Tuesday Society, 11 Mare Street, London, E8 4RP

In her many projects, ranging from photography to curation to writing, New York based Joanna Ebenstein utilizes a combination of art and scholarship to tease out the ways in which the pre-rational roots of modernity are sublimated into ostensibly "purely rational" cultural activities such as science and medicine.Much of her work uses this approach to investigate historical moments or artifacts where art and science, death and beauty, spectacle and edification, faith and empiricism meet in ways that trouble contemporary categorical expectations.In the exhibition "Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses" Ebenstein turns this approach to an examination of the uncanny and powerfully resonant representations of the dead, martyred, and anatomized body in Italy, monuments to humankind's quest to eternally preserve the corporeal body and defeat death in arenas sacred and profane.The artifacts she finds in both the churches, charnel houeses and anatomical museums of Italy complicate our ideas of the proper roles of--and divisions between--science and religion, death and beauty; art and science; eros and thanatos; sacred and profane; body and soul.

In this exhibition, you will be introduced to tantalizing visions of death made beautiful, uncanny monuments to the human dream of life eternal. You will meet "Blessed Ismelda Lambertini," an adolescent who fell into a fatal swoon of overwhelming joy at the moment of her first communion with Jesus Christ, now commemorated in a chillingly beautiful wax effigy in a Bolognese church; The Slashed Beauty, swooning with a grace at once spiritual and worldly as she makes a solemn offering of her immaculate viscera; Saint Vittoria, with slashed neck and golden ringlets, her waxen form reliquary to her own powerful bones; and the magnificent and troubling Anatomical Venuses, rapturously ecstatic life-sized wax women reclining voluptuously on silk and velvet cushions, asleep in their crystal coffins, awaiting animation by inquisitive hands eager to dissect them into their dozens of demountable, exactingly anatomically correct, wax parts.

Joanna Ebenstein: New York based visual artist and independent scholar Joanna Ebenstein runs the popular Morbid Anatomy Blog and the related Morbid Anatomy Library, where her privately held collection of books, art, artifacts, and curiosities are made available by appointment.

For the past 5 years, she has traveled the world, seeking out the most curious, obscure and macabre collections, public and private, front stage and back, and sharing her findings via her the Morbid Anatomy Blog as well as a variety of exhibitions including  Anatomical Theatre, a photographic survey of artifacts of great medical museums of the Western World; The Secret Museum, a photographic exhibition exploring the poetics of collections private and public, front stage and back.

Other exhibitions using history as their muse include Savior of Mothers: The Forgotten Ballet of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis  at the Center for Disease Control Museum and The Great Coney Island Spectacularium, an immersive investigation into the often bizarre spectacles of turn of the 20th century Coney Island at The Coney Island Museum.

She is the founding member of Observatory--a gallery and lecture space in Brooklyn, New York--and annual co-curator of The Congress for Curious Peoples, a 10-day series of lectures and performances investigating curiosity and curiosities, broadly considered and taking place at the Coney Island Museum.

Her work has been shown and published internationally, and she has lectured at museums and conferences around the world.

You can find out more about the show here, and view more images by clicking here.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Posted in Anatomy | Comments Off on "Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses: Visions of Death Made Beautiful in Italy" Exhibition, Open Hours This Saturday, September 22, Noon-7 PM