Dániel Barabási, a former graduate student from the lab of MCB’s Florian Engert and now a neuroscience postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute, is also an accomplished artist. Next Monday, September 30, his artwork produced in partnership photo artist Balázs Csizik will be on display in a unique exhibition titled Biophilia at 5PM at the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s (GSD) Kirkland Gallery.
“When I showed Balázs two-photon recordings of early neural activations in zebrafish, recently collected with Gregor Schuhknecht in the Engert lab, he proposed that we plan a joint exhibition,” Barabási says. Barabási and Schuhknecht received this year’s Meselson Prize for Most Beautiful Experiment which was presented at the recent MCB Research Retreat.
Barabási explains that Biophilia is an homage to the late Harvard Professor E.O. Wilson and that the works are a dialogue on the parallels and contrasts in urban and biological growth. “We use Balázs’ distinctive constructivist, Bauhaus-inspired style to depict key concepts of neurodevelopment, generating modular representations of Waddington landscapes for cell identity formation, morphogenesis, cell-cell recognition rules, and pruning, fit for the canvas,” he explains. “We also highlight the tension between natural social dynamics and urban landscapes by connecting the two with neurons, thereby physically embodying Biophilia – the inherent human urge to connect with nature and other forms of life!”
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