putting the puzzle together

When it’s better for everyone, it’s better for everyone.  Eleanor Roosevelt

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After my conversation with Tapoka, I’m better able to understand an earlier discussion with Maria (Duque), whom as you might recall also works with Trichuris trichiura, aka the whipworm. Duque explained When the eggs arrive in the caecum, they hatch in a process that is dependent on microbiota. We can recreate this in the lab by incubating T.muris eggs (blue) ↓ with Escherichia coli (yellow). My PhD student, Tapoka Mkandawire, is investigating how this happens.

Picture by by microscopy guru David Goulding.

It looks like the bacteria aggregates around a region of the egg called polar plug. Then, the polar plug is dissolved and the larvae that is inside comes out.

When the eggs arrive in the caecum, they hatch in a process that is dependent on microbiota.

While I absolutely love the blue stain in the scientific photograph, in keeping with the bigger picture of this series, I use vermillion and sienna, part of the unifying palette.

Tapoka and I continue our conversation about bacteria in the human intestine. She explains a crosstalk of sorts, that goes on between worm and bacteria, resulting in infection. I listen for the various things I’ve learned about other bugs, that have to come into play, like temperature and oxygen.

She returns to explaining DNA sequencing of the many species of bacteria in the intestine. It’s like a picture box. We’re going to put this all together because we have so much information. All the pieces of the puzzle will come together!

Of course a puzzle ↓ element surfaces. #PoopSample #InformationGathers

Curious, I ask Tapoka a final question: It just feels to me like the potential for serious disease is always present with whipworms. What purpose do they serve, if any, in the human gut?

They do cause serious illness when you have an acute infection (high numbers of worms), and it is not good for children in particular under 5 as it has an impact on nutrition and development. However the flip side is that parasites like the whipworm are really good at sending signals to our immune system. We hope in the future to be able to use these signals to help people with auto immune diseases; starting with those in the gut like Celiac and Irritable Bowel.

Tapoka sends video. One is eggs and hatched larvae (very clean). She likes that it appears the worm is waving hello. I appreciate her light-hearted nature.

I take a final opportunity to draw one more whipworm. I can’t help but emphasize the linear shape/quality of this parasite.

I begin this public engagement project with the whipworm and chance directs I end with it.
#ICircleBack 

The science is fascinating and the work is important. This entire experience has been/is organic. Art making is the way I learn. With this series I experimented with new surfaces, forms and materials. 
#GottaHaveArt #GottaHaveLife

And this post will end with Tapoka’s take on Eleanor’s words: It doesn’t get better for everyone until it gets better for everyone. 
#NeglectedTropicalDiseases

 

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©2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

the role of host intestinal bacteria in trichuriasis

This week I meet Tapoka Mkandawire, a scientist out of the Welcome Sanger Institute.

Tapoka’s focus is Trichuriasis, a disease I cover earlier in this public engagement project. Looking at the role of the host intestinal bacteria (microbiota) in inducing the hatching of whipworm eggs, she brings  another angle to the picture.

Trichuriasis is a disease caused by infection with Trichuris trichiura, the human whipworm; affecting over 450 million people. She reminds me, the infection occurs when people eat food or drink water contaminated with whipworm eggs. These eggs hatch in the intestines liberating worms that burrow into the intestinal wall.

In my work I collect various samples from the intestine, different bacteria reside in specific communities or sections along the gut and they have different properties and functions as a result of this. Some of these samples are also better at inducing hatching of the whipworms than others. We can look at the DNA of these communities through metagenomic analysis and get an in-depth understanding of the members and the functions of these populations and relate this to their ability to cause whipworm hatching.

Tapoka describes the barrel shaped egg ↑ and its pair of polar plugs at each end and continues, When the parasite eggs get to the cecum they detect that this is the environment they need to be in to establish an infection. Part of the way they can detect this is through the bacteria, as like the worms, different bacteria prefer different parts of the gut. The bacteria in the caecum, are a signal to the worm in the egg that it is in the right place. Once that signal has been received the process of hatching can begin. During hatching the polar plugs on the egg, the little blobs at either end, are eroded away and then the worm is free to swim out of the egg into the gut where it can infect cells. This eroding or degrading of the polar plugs is done by enzymes expressed by the worms and bacteria.

I particularly enjoy detailing the bacteria.

And adding depth.

I ask her to define metagenomics. A collection of genetic material from a mixed community of organisms….lots of DNA coming from different species.

Oops! I take this to far and will have to bring it back.

We end up talking about the uniqueness of the individual all the way down to the uniqueness of their bugs (microbiome).

Tapoka: We curate our microbes!
Me: We curate our gut microbiome?
T: Yes, and it’s a diverse variety. Imagine a hive of activity! A swarm! Chaos!
M: Do you know what bacteria is doing what, and where?
T: I’m getting closer!

I’m getting close too…as color pulls this all together.

And with this, the conversation turns to poop and all the information a stool sample can gather. She also talks about the hygiene hypothesis and the missing friends theory. 

I’m curious, can you send a stool sample image? Under the microscope? She can and she does!

She sends many files labeled Poo/Debris Under Microscope.
Above ↑ and below ↓ are one sample at two different magnifications.

Question: What is all this where looking at here? And what, in particular, is the bright perfect circle?

I don’t know about you, but this stuff makes me think of the work of Paul Klee!

Below is my mixed media version of … a poo smear. #someprocess

materials for a collage

There is such a value to drawing and painting things out for me. #looking #seeing
It’s truly how I learn.

I’m not finished…there’s a little bit more I think I want to cover with this bacteria/whipworm/cecum/egg thing.

Good to meet you Tapoka, I have to admit, this was fun. Thank you!

For more about Tapoka Mkandawire → LinkedIn.

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©2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

under the microscope – unembryonated whipworm eggs

It is late 2018, when Maria brings the idea of a public engagement project to my drawing table.

In the early part of our conversation and planning (before we zoomed…we skyped? or something to that effect).

I could not have imagined then I would be connecting with a number of scientist from different countries, discussing various pathogens and diseases….uh…much less, during a pandemic.

And consequently creating a series of small studies. I call the work studies because as I learn, I draw and paint. I also want to note I find a new circular format, work on a different surface, experiment with new brushes… #ChangeIsGood

Today I talk to Dr. María Adelaida Duque, the scientist and her work.

Maria: I am a Colombian immunologist with a passion to understand host-pathogen interactions, she explains, that underlie infectious diseases endemic in low and middle-income countries such as Colombia.

During my career I have studied different infectious diseases including Chagas disease caused by the infection with Trypanosoma cruzi (a protist), tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (bacteria infecting the lung), and currently trichuriasis, a neglected tropical disease caused by Trichuris trichiura (alias Whipworm).  

While in studio I focus on the whipworm and it’s eggs but I want to know more about neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

Maria: They are a group of 17-20 different diseases affecting more than 1 billion people in low and middle-income countries mainly in the tropics and subtropics of Latin America, Asia and Africa (https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/ntd/diseases/index.html, https://www.who.int/teams/control-of-neglected-tropical-diseases). These diseases are related to poverty and the lack of proper sanitation. Some of them were actually present in USA and European countries but the introduction of sanitation put them under control. Because they do not affect wealthy countries, there is not much investment in research and development of drugs and vaccines to control them.

She asks me to imagine teaching children about sanitation and hand-washing, in an area where water is not easily accessible.

We get infected with this parasite when we ingest eggs present in contaminated food or water, she says.

Her image is labeled Worm in the cecum. Because I spend last summer drawing cross sections of the intestine (and enjoyed it!), I recognize some things.

My sensibility pulls to the small circular detailed areas (not typical of the cecum) which are unembryontaed eggs inside a female whipworm (transverse cut).  While the visual appeals to my eyes, I don’t forget the female T. trichiura produces 2,000–10,000 single-celled eggs a day!

I admire how microscopic images are laid out usually showing changes occurring in organ/organism. I decide for a similar layout to show the evolution of my study, layout to completion.

line, color, shape, form, space, texture, scale

Note thick, oval-shape shell with plugs at both end, that protect the egg. The whole thing is covered by vitelline membrane. #stable
I could probably do a whole series on the egg development. #stages

Ww Eggs in Cecum (working title), Casein and ink on wood panel, 8.5″ diameter

Do eggs hatch in the intestine?  And is hatch the correct word to use?

All unembryonated eggs need moisture and temperature to embryonate, Maria explains, which in nature they find in the soil, that is why whipwomrs are soil-transmitted helminths.

Unembryonated eggs travel through the intestine, exit the body in the stool and eventually become embryonated eggs.  They can be present in contaminated food and water. Consider they may end up in the little hands of children playing with soil, ingested and eventually arrive to the intestine and hatch.

Questions:
Can human whipworm eggs be seen in the soil? With or without microscope? (I’d guess you need a microscope.)
In particular locations, could/would soil be sequenced? 

Trichuris muris – Parasite eggs on my drawing table

I ask Maria about her research and its results: I foresee the results of my research will help us to develop new drugs and a vaccine (currently there is not one), to fight trichuriasis, but also to understand how the infection with whipworms can promote the resolution of inflammatory diseases such as IBD and allergies.

Thank you Maria, for initiating this public engagement and for sharing your work with me.
Muchas Gracias!

For more about work and publications → Dr. María Adelaida Duque

Next post, I plan to take you into the cecum and tell you more about Trichuris trichiura (aka whipwrom). And I need to decide if I’ll be drawing more whipworms (I did once- look). I bet I will!

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©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

yersinia pestis, insidious you are

Where to start, bacteria? Or plague?

In this post, I hope to focus mostly on the insidious bio-agent, Yersinia Pestis aka, Y. pestis, bringer of plagues. I stray but I come back (you’ll know by my tone).

Pathogen infection blocks flea’s esophagus. Unable to feed, it jumps from animal to animal in attempt to get nourishment. During this process it regurgitates infection into each bite wound until it dies of starvation.

Plague derives from the Greek, plēgē, meaning a blow or stroke. Latin plungere, meaning to beat or strike and also to bewail or lament.

I want to indicate idea of pandemic in some way. I mention to Dr. Sandra Reuter, I am considering collaging a world map into my study of Y. pestis.

She responds: I like the idea of the world map and spreading of disease. That is very much what I am interested in now, and it does also apply to the plague, as it has travelled the world several times, too! Especially in the middle ages, it spread along the trade routes. Even today, it survives in some places like Madagascar, China, Russia, and even in remote parts of the US.

Some bugs are like that, they like to travel and make use of how people move. Compared to the middle ages, the spread nowadays is much quicker, though, because of air travel! That’s why this corona virus pandemic has hit the whole world within a couple of months, whereas the plague travelled much slower, and the big pandemic of the Black Death took several years to spread around Europe.

At start of composition, I know I want to indicate the plague and it’s history so I collage onto my surface, a global map. I want to add a phylogenetic tree but I fill the space with symbolic fingerprints instead. This detail eventually goes.

Plague, infectious disease, zoonotic in nature meaning it’s transmitted between animals and humans. The main vector, a small flea, passes causative agent, Y. pestis to another living creature, in this case, a rat, aka, the reservoir host.

Can I refer to this as one cycle? Because we also have another cycle that involves the human.

Flea is vector, rat is reservoir host (first victim), and the bacteria being passed is non-motile, rod shaped, bipolar staining (looks like a closed safety pin). I especially enjoy drawing the rat. Felt a little bad for flea. Safety pins were nearby…fun photo op.

Humans are contaminated in various ways:  flea bite (blood meal / flea throw-up),  direct contact with infected animal or tissue, or by inhalation of droplets coughed by infected human or animal.

While the disease is important, I get so caught up in it (fyi, it’s fascinating and there’s a lot on it, look it up).  And in the case of this study of Y. pestis, I wander into genome sequencing too (and also get lost).

Trying to understand a complicated set up, I eventually have to return to the focus for my visual…the pathogenic bug. 

As I look at and draw in the  bacteria, I recall Sandra telling me most look fairly similar and are small. She’s right, they do and they are.

Y. pestis, Gram-negative, nonmotile, rod shaped bacterium, I’ve decided I have an aversion to you. I can’t think straight to write about you.

You are facultative anaerobic which basically means you grow (survive) with or without oxygen (with or without oxygen!). You are held by some sort of slime layer that prevents you from being destroyed by king of the phagocytes (→macrophage).

Enter neutrophil, lymph node and macrophage.(replacing fingerprints)

You manage to colonize macrophages, reaching lymph nodes, and because the immune system doesn’t take you down you can enter the blood stream and organs leading to bubonic plague, septicemic plague or pneumonic plague. And if you’re inclined, you take people down quick!

The history of the plague and the details of the various transmissions are out there to read about. And genome sequencing helps to tie up the story as it passes through time.

Though unlike my last study where I manage to pull it all together (at least in my head and on my painting surface) – this pathogen and its disease has me going from one complexity to another. I keep wishing I was painting on a large sheet of paper that I can erase and rework instead of circular, 11.5″ form. Oh well.

Questions I have as I learn about Y. pestis and its disease:

Who is the victim in the end? Every life form that comes into contact with Y. pestis, is my guess.
And who survives? (I sort of asked this question in the last post) My best guess is, it all depends on who, what and when. There are lots of fleas and rats, after all, and maybe many humans too (in other words overpopulation).
Will the bacteria be destroyed completely? Does it serve a purpose?
Does the bacteria’s nonmotile quality benefit it in some way? It seems to me it would want to move.

Any comments or questions? Please share them!

Thank you Sandra, for introducing me to your work, past and present. And helping me along as I organize my thoughts. I will say this study and how I moved through it, in some weird way, activated my imagination and maybe at times even each of my senses.
#LotsOfActivity

I especially enjoyed our conversation about DNA (and RNA) and the common thread (strands) that connects us all. I’ll hope to come back to this one day.

More → Dr Sandra Reuter and her work.

Postscript: It was hard for me to keep this information organized so I could understand. Maybe because I quit drinking coffee this last month…who knows. Anyway, it’s interesting to be looking at this topic in the context of this last year. It moves me into looking forward. All life seeks to survive.

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©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

plasmodium stages and cycles or is it cycles and stages

Last week I explain the malaria parasite’s life cycle involves two hosts and includes two cycles with various stages.

Recap: the first cycle includes a pregnant mosquito of the genus Anopheles passing sporozoites (through it’s saliva) into an (in this case) human host.

Question: I don’t clearly understand what comes first, the infectious mosquito or the diseased human the mosquito bites?

One malaria life cycle includes parasite maturing in human liver cells and in red blood cells.

In a human, the plasmodium parasite, in the form of sporozoites, enters blood vessels, making their way to the liver and multiply in hepatocytes (liver cells), eventually bursting the cell ↓, to exit as merozoites.

Parasites stages of transmission in liver cells.

Enter merozoites ↓ into red blood cells where parasite continues to develop in stages↓.

↑
1 Red blood cell (RBC)
2 Ring Stage
3 Trophozoite Stage – Greek, Trophē, food or nourishment and zōon, animal.
4 Schizont Stage – G, schizoto, split or cleave + ōn (ont-), a being.
5 Merozoite – G. mēros, share + zōon, animal.
(note: ↑ the RBC bursts releasing more merozoites in the bloodstream and infect more red blood cells)
6 Gametocytes (Sexual development) G. gametēs, husband or gametē, wife + kytos, cell (some merozoites develop into gametocytes (sexual form of parasite).

Meanwhile, a new mosquito arrives to feed upon the infected host, and while enjoying a blood meal, ingests gametocytes. In the stomach of this mosquito, microgametes (male) penetrate macrogametes (female) producing a zygote.
And the sporogonic cycle continues.

Come on…what a process and aren’t these great words! There’s more! ↓

1 Gametes – Greek  gametēs, husband; gametē, wife
   and Zygote G. zygōtos, yoked
2 Ookinete (midgut) – G. ōon – egg + kinētos, motile. 
3 Oocyst (grows and bursts) G. ōon – egg + kystis, sac.
4 Sporozoite (released in mosquitos salivary glands) G. sporo,– the sewing of a seed + zōon, animal.

Eventually the mosquito makes its way to another human host only to perpetuate the malaria cycle.

Malaria comes from the Italian mal aria which translates to bad air. It was thought that malaria was caused by noxious air coming from the marshlands. Something was coming out of those marshlands but it was not the air that caused malaria, it was a mobile bug, inside the mosquitoes, that laid their eggs in the wetlands.

I am intimidated at the start of this particular study. With Alejandro’s help, I figure things out. Once I get going, the cycle unravels as I move from one stage to the next…etc.

I feel a sense of respect for this parasite. I only nick the information but feel like I could do a whole detailed series of large works on this one bug alone – there is so much more wonder to it. #cyclesandstages #stageandcycles
#NothingInStasis
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I ask Alejandro for one more bit of information to share with me.
Monica, to be honest, I have been working on Plasmodium for over 10 years and I still find myself discovering new things about it that fascinate me.
Mmmm…What about: this parasite has been affecting humans for so long and so strongly, that it’s considered the most powerful force for recent selection of human genetic variations. Meaning that people with variations in their DNA that confer resistance to this disease are selected, even if that has some side-effects (like sickle-cell or alpha-talassemia).

Otra ves, gracias Alejandro!

more → Alejandro Marin Menéndez 

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©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

aspergillus hyphae

Hyphae (plural) are the branching filaments that make up the structure of a fungus.

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Friday, I have questions for scientist, Ana Alastruey-Izquierdo. Saturday, she has answers for me.

Sunday morning, out for a run, I wonder how to approach a second study of aspergillus. Looking around, I know the fungus is all around me. I come across a dead tree and have the idea to gather twigs for drawing texture and interesting mark-making.

Drawing implement or Aspergillus/Fugus carrier?

Though I don’t want to simplify Ana’s work, I do want to get a general sense of the bug.

Where in the body does aspergillus end up? (I think breathing pathways…nose, lungs. How about the liver?) How and what sort of damage does it cause? On a scale from 1-10  how bad/problematic to a person – is this fungus? (I hope she doesn’t cringe at the latter.)

It can go almost anywhere, Ana explains. We daily breath thousands of Aspergillus spores. It is in our lungs. People with a healthy inmune system usually clear it up and it does not go further. There are some persons in which an allergic response is developed and this causes allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA).

The other important group are people that have problems with the immune system (cancer, transplants, HIV, people under corticosteroids, diabetic…etc). In these patients Aspergillus enters into the lungs and if it is not cleared by their immune system it further develops infections and can lead to invasive aspergilosis that if not treated has 100% mortality. Mainly Aspergillus causes respiratory infections but as I said, it can diseminate in people with impaired immune systems.

Ana continues… How bad/problematic for a person with Aspergillus depends on the immune system. Mortality is arround 40% but can reach 80% if we are dealing with strains that are resistant to antifungals. 

The problem with antifungal resistance is that it is not frequently screened. There aren’t many commercially available methods to test for it.  Often it is only performed in developed countries and sometimes restricted to reference or very specialized labs.

And regarding the rate from 1 to 10, if you are immunosuppressed or have an underlying disease it can be very problematic, like an 8 or 9. People that are at high risk for developing invasive fungal infections, like hematological patients, receive antifungal prophylaxis by default. But if you are healthy, no problem.

I work and consider her words and the value of this education.

textured substrate

work in progress

Aspergillus Hyphae, Mixed media on wood, 8″ round

Please feel free to leave questions and/or comments.

More about the work of → Ana Alastruey Izquierdo

#artistmeetsscientist #artmeetsscience #publicengagement

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One of the best parts of this particular Public Engagement Project is that I connect with scientists in other parts of the world.

It’s a pleasure to meet you Ana, albeit virtually. Thank you for teaching me about this beautiful but potentially nasty fungus.

Mucho gusto en conocerte Ana!

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©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ

aspergillus / filamentous fungi

Not exactly certain how to begin the art part of the art and science Public Engagement Project with Maria Duque (remember we’re in a pandemic), I decide to send an introduction email to the group of scientists she’s gathered.
#1Engage

I’m excited when the first response comes in from → Ana Alastruey-Izquierdo, who is from the Mycology Reference Laboratory of Spain (Madrid). She works in the diagnosis, treatment and management of fungal infections and resistance.

She sends some information and explains other things I’ve asked for might not be available immediately (website maintenance), and she also tells me other info is in Spanish. I should have expected the latter. I smile because for me reading science research is challenging to understand in English and could probably be even more complicated to read and understand, in Spanish. It’s fine, if necessary, we can talk.
#2Will!

I open up images she sends…and oh!!!!

How can fungus and mold have such beautiful form? Shouldn’t I have an aversion to it?  Did I mention Ana researches Aspergillus?

Aspergillus acquired its name from the fact that its structure resembles an aspergillum (cool word I recall from Catholic school days). The small brush (aka liturgical implement) used by a priest to sprinkle holy water is called an aspergillum and derives from the Latin verb aspergere, which means to sprinkle or spray.

Does Aspergillius actually spray…anything? Does it produce fungi spores that release into the atmosphere? Or is the name only related to its form/shape? (And can I really refer to it as a bug? – because we’ve been referring to the microbes and worms as bugs and this feels more like plant.)
#3Relate!

I’m curious about the structure of these pathogenic, opportunistic organism (found indoors and outdoors). In particular I am drawn to the long branching filamentous extensions. What is hyphae?  Hypha(e), from the greek, meaning web are thread-like to my eyes. I studied this fungus once before; I have so much more to learn.
#4Curiousity

The excitement to draw the wonderful (playful) details I see in the various hi-resolution images…well, it sends me to the art store. I start to consider variety (something different) in materials, shapes and sizes.

I look at paper, canvas and panels and none of it pulls at my attention. On the drive home, I decide I want a flat, rich surfaced, circular form. My husband offers to help, we take a trip to the hardware store, and out come the power tools. As the weekend draws to a close, I have circular panels in various sizes, to paint.
#5Support!

Final note (and one of the reasons for the education):
The most important part of my research, says Ana, is that antifungal resistance rates are increasing so this can be a problem in the near future as it is with bacteria.

There are not many antifungal drugs available to treat these infections and the rise of drug resistance in the last years is very worriesome. 

Aspergillus, Mixed media on wood, 12″ round

Come back for more on the work of Ana Alastruey-Izquierdo. 

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©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED